


Be Careful What You Wish For

by toomanyunfinishedfics



Category: Persona 5
Genre: (Lbr practically everything I write ends up hurt/comfort one way or another lmao), Hand-wavy Metaverse Explanations, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Identity, M/M, Panic Attacks, Persona 5 Big Bang 2019, There's drama there's poorly-written action scenes and there's two pining dumbasses, What more could anyone ask for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 03:04:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 32,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17952449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toomanyunfinishedfics/pseuds/toomanyunfinishedfics
Summary: Juggling academic responsibilities, social responsibilities, part-time work, and Phantom Thief work was a lot for Akira to handle on most days—so when presented with an offer to split the responsibilities with someone that looks exactly like him, Akira accepts without considering the consequences.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heavily inspired by the Vocaloid song [Haikei Doppelganger (Dear Doppelganger)](http://vocaloidlyrics.wikia.com/wiki/%E6%8B%9D%E5%95%93%E3%83%89%E3%83%83%E3%83%9A%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B2%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC_\(Haikei_Doppelganger\)) and written for the [Persona 5 Big Bang](https://the-p5-big-bang.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Hey guys, so you may or may not have known, but I've been a part of the P5 Big Bang event these past few months, which is part of the reason why updates for my fic have been slow;; But now that it's finally done I'll do my best to pour my focus back into the last stretch of my NG+ fic! <3
> 
> Also a huge, huge thanks to my friend who slogged through this entire fic and edited it so it wouldn’t be as huge of a grammatical train wreck as my other fics lmao <3 I hope everyone enjoys this fic, as well as the amazing corresponding art from my two artists [Bumblebee](https://whimsical-bumblebee.tumblr.com/post/183144462696/my-piece-for-the-p5-big-bang-there-were-some) and [King Flug](https://tiredstarr.tumblr.com/post/183224390656/my-part-of-the-p5-big-bang-it-was-a-lot-of-fun)!! ^^ ( **Edit:** The links for both art pieces have been added! Please check them out and give them lots of love! <3)

After seeing the poor excuse for a mirror inside the LeBlanc bathroom, Ann had been kind enough to surprise Akira one day with a mirror for his bedroom. 

Ryuji had laughed and said that guys don’t need mirrors in their bedrooms. Akira had ignored him and thanked her profusely because  _ god _ was it difficult to make sure he looked decent when he could barely see his face in the bathroom mirror, let alone his whole outfit. It wasn’t even about him being vain; he just couldn’t afford to look anything less than presentable, not when he had so many different appearances that he needed to keep up.

If he dressed too sloppy, he’d look like the delinquent that he was labeled as instead of the model student he tried to be. If he looked like a mess, he’d get fired from his part time jobs, because who wanted to keep an employee that couldn’t even properly take care of their appearance?

And of course, though it was more implicit, the leader of the Phantom Thieves couldn’t go walking around looking like he’d rolled out of bed. That would be just embarrassing.

So, Akira got plenty of use out of the mirror throughout the year, habitually checking himself to make sure that he looked alright and, as time went on, relying on the mirror to try and spot any signs of exhaustion that he’d missed: dark circles that he meticulously masked under makeup, and his hair that he took extra care in fixing up to hide the fact that it was starting to lose its luster.

It was a particularly bad night when Akira glanced over at the mirror by chance. Exhaustion forced him to blink more times than necessary, and he turned to stare at the mirror with a bewildered expression.

That wasn’t his reflection—or at least, not his  _ normal _ reflection, anyway.

Akira hesitantly took a step closer to the mirror, watching as the reflection—the image of his Metaverse self in all his smug, confident glory—stayed completely still instead of, you know,  _ mirroring _ his movements.

“ _ You’re looking stressed _ ,” Joker commented, because of  _ course _ his Metaverse counterpart was talking to him through a mirror (it made about as much sense as anything else since coming to Tokyo), and  _ god _ Akira really needed to listen to Morgana and actually go to sleep early if he was starting to hallucinate from exhaustion—

“ _ You’re not hallucinating _ ,” Joker said with a chuckle. When Akira stiffened in shock, he added, “ _ Why so surprised? I’m you, aren’t I? Of course I know what you’re thinking and what you’re feeling. _ ”

“Right,” Akira murmured after a moment’s hesitation as he ran a hand through his hair, still trying to wrap his mind around what was happening. “Okay, fine. Weirder things have happened. Let’s say this is really happening, and I’m not hallucinating. Why are you here? Why am I suddenly able to speak to you like this?”

“ _ Because your cognition of yourself is shifting, _ ” Joker explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world (god, did Akira really sound this irritatingly smug and overconfident when he was Joker?). ” _ You’re spreading yourself thin, trying to balance all of the different masks you’re wearing: a normal student, whatever kind of friend each your friends need you to be at any given moment, a different kind of employee for each job, and of course the leader of the Phantom Thieves. You’re beginning to separate yourself into different versions and switch through them like you switch through your Personas—I was just the strongest cognitive personality that you had, which made it easiest for me to reach you. _ ”

Akira let out a sigh. “I guess that makes sense, in an odd way,” he conceded after a moment of thought, lifting his glasses slightly to massage the bridge of his nose. “Or at least, as much sense as anything related to the Metaverse could make.”

“ _You know,_ ” Joker began slowly, “ _if you’d like, we could trade places for a day._ ”

Akira blinked, bewildered by the sudden offer. “Is that even possible?”

“ _ Of course it is, _ ” Joker responded with a smirk. “ _ I’m an extension of you, but like I said, you’ve begun separating yourself from me. All we need to do is swap cognitions like we change our masks in the Metaverse, and you can rest and have some peace and quiet in here while I take care of everything you have to do for the day. It’s simple, really. _ ”

Aside from the incredulity of the entire situation, Akira felt like there was something off about Joker’s words: he knew that he was confident to the point of being cocky as Joker, but Joker’s expression, coupled with his haughty tone set off alarms in the furthest recesses of his mind. Yet he was so exhausted _ — _ and more importantly, so relieved by the thought of getting a break, without having to worry about dealing with all the societal pressures being forced onto him _ — _ that the offer sounded like a godsend.

“Just one day wouldn’t hurt, I guess,” Akira said with wary acceptance. “It’s not like you don’t know how I act and what I need to do, since you’re technically me.” He paused and added, “Right?”

Joker smiled. “ _ That’s right—all you have to do is touch the mirror and close your eyes, and I’ll take over for you. _ ”

Akira hesitated, eyeing the mirror for a moment. Finally, he gave in to the temptation of getting one single day to rest, pressing his fingers against the cool glass as he closed his eyes.

The last thing that he felt was the sensation of falling, and then...

Nothing.

* * *

Akira couldn't remember the last time he had such a peaceful sleep.

The darkness and silence that surrounded him should have been a sign that something wasn't right, but at the moment it felt like pure  _ bliss _ .

No more managing other people's problems without anyone lending an ear to his own; no more stressing about making enough money to buy weapons and medicine for his teammates; no more trying to keep his grades up and keep up the appearance of an upstanding student while knowing that one misstep could land him in jail; and no more worrying about making crucial leadership decisions that could literally affect the fate of all of Japan and potentially even the whole world.

He relished the tranquility.

… For the first few hours, at least.

Soon after waking up from his peaceful rest and finding that he couldn't fall back asleep, he began to grow restless. It probably wasn't healthy, but he was so used to making use of every minute, every second of his time that sitting there accomplishing absolutely nothing enveloped him in a subtle disquiet.

It belatedly occurred to him that he had no way of even knowing how much time had even passed in the real world—and from that he realized that he had no clue what this world even _was_ , and finally that slight feeling that something was amiss, one that he’d initially brushed off as his imagination, began to grow into an unsettling feeling of alarm.

Akira struggled to move in the encompassing darkness, feeling disoriented without a floor beneath his feet or anything around to mark his movement at all.

That is, until he saw a speck of light in the distance.

Whether it had been there all along and he hadn't noticed, or it had somehow just appeared, Akira didn't know—nor did he care as he rushed toward it.

Upon finally reaching the light, he was surprised to find that it was some sort of window.

No, not a window... a  _ mirror _ .

He took a closer look, unsure of whether to feel relieved or fearful as he saw his room right in front of him, so close yet so far.

Akira put a hand against the mirror, finding that—though it didn't look solid—he couldn't push through to the other side no matter how hard he tried.

A feeling of dread swelled inside him, but he stubbornly pushed it aside. Joker was another part of him; he wouldn't do anything like what Akira was starting to suspect. With nothing to preoccupy him, Akira was getting anxious, and his mind was starting to wander and jump to conclusions—that's all it was.

Once Joker finished everything Akira had planned to do for the day, they would switch back, and Akira could put this whole thing behind him and move on. One day of rest was more than enough if he was already getting this apprehensive.

Everything would be fine.

… Right?

* * *

After what felt like an eternity, Akira finally caught sight of Joker moving around in the bedroom. He couldn’t help but sigh in relief when his doppelganger looked over at him and approached the mirror.

“How was your day?” Joker asked with a smile. “Did you enjoy having some time off to rest?”

Immediately, guilt washed over Akira—was he really so on-edge that he’d gone so far as to suspect another part of himself of any malice toward him? Joker’s gentle inquisitiveness expressed his concern for Akira’s well-being and his desire to help. What exactly did that say about Akira, then, that he couldn’t even trust  _ himself _ at this point?

“ _ Well, it was good to get to sleep in, _ ” Akira said wryly, inwardly unsettled in the slightest by the distortion in his own voice. “ _ But sleeping could only kill so much time, unfortunately. I guess I’m just so used to running around that I feel restless with nothing to do. _ ”

“That’s a shame,” Joker replied. “I was hoping you’d get a bit more enjoyment out of shifting your responsibilities onto someone else.” He shrugged, mirth tugging on the corner of his lips. ”Though I suppose I can understand where you’re coming from. It  _ does _ get a bit boring, not having anything to occupy your time with.”

“ _ Did everything go well with you today? _ ” Unable to help the slight hint of worriedness that slipped into his tone, he added, “ _ No one suspected anything, did they? _ ”

“As a matter of fact, everything went without a hitch. Not even Morgana noticed the difference.” Joker smirked slightly. “I’d even go so far as to say that I’m better at being you than you are.”

Akira tensed. “ _ What do you mean? _ ”

His smirk widening, Joker straightened up and shrugged. “Exactly what it sounds like,  _ Akira _ ,” he said, drawing out every syllable in Akira’s name in blatant mockery. ”I could do a better job of living your life than you can, if you’re cracking under the pressure so easily.”

Akira bristled, his eyes narrowing. “ _ I can handle the pressure just fine, now give me my body back. _ ”

“Hmm.” Joker drummed his fingers along his chin, though the amusement glinting in his eyes cheapened the gesture. ”You know what? I don’t think I will.”

The color drained from Akira’s face as he stared at his doppelganger’s expression, realization slowly beginning to set in: whoever this was _ — _ or  _ what _ ever this was _ — _ it wasn’t a part of him.

There was no way any part of him would do something like this.

“ _ You can’t be serious. You—you said this would just be for a day! _ ”

“Oh, yes—I  _ did _ say that, now didn’t I?” Joker moved closer to the mirror, leaning forward until he was almost touching the glass. “But I’m afraid I’ve changed my mind,  _ Akira _ . You see,” he flung his hands aside in a dramatic shrug, “it’s awfully boring sitting in that dark, empty void; and now that I’ve finally gotten a taste of the outside world after so, so long _ — _ well, can you really blame me for not wanting to give it up?”

Akira scowled and pounded on the mirror. The action was futile, but he tried to force his way through regardless, spurred by a pure desperation mixed with a gradually-increasing fear.

Joker laughed at Akira’s efforts, rising to his full height with a grin. “Sorry, Akira. Maybe in your next life, you’ll learn to be a little less trusting. But for now,” he shot Akira one final, unsettling grin, “so long.”

With that, Joker brought one of Akira’s books from the nearby shelf down hard enough to smash the glass, and Akira’s vision cracked in front of him as pieces of the mirror fell away.

“ _ No—you can’t do this, you can’t— _ ”

Akira scrambled to catch the pieces of the mirror that fell, but the light fell straight through his hands until it completely disappeared, leaving him in the darkness once more.

* * *

Joker hummed quietly to himself as he swept up the shards of the mirror, only turning his attention away from the mess when he heard Morgana’s startled yelp.

“Akira, what happened here? Are you okay?”

Joker smiled sheepishly. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine—I banged into the mirror and it shattered. I’ll have to apologize to Ann tomorrow.”

Morgana frowned disapprovingly. “Breaking a mirror is bad luck, and breaking a present from Lady Ann is even worse—but if it was an accident, I’m sure she’ll forgive you.”

“I hope so,” Joker responded with a quiet chuckle, bagging up the glass shards and picking up the mirror frame so he could bring them both downstairs with the garbage.

As Joker returned upstairs and began getting himself ready for bed at Morgana’s urging, he couldn’t help but smirk to himself in satisfaction. Finally, after being trapped for longer than he could even remember, he  _ finally _ had a body of his own—and it was such an interesting body too, with such interesting powers….

He was going to enjoy this new life as “Akira” very much.

* * *

Akira struggled not to panic as he felt the darkness surrounding him, suffocating him whereas before it had felt blissfully comforting.

He was trapped.

All because he’d been so weak, so stupid, that he let some…  _ whatever _ that was trick him into making a deal with his body as the price, and now he was trapped here for—for what, forever?

Akira didn’t have  _ time _ for this, damn it. He had too many other problems on his plate as it was to deal with something stealing his body and trapping him in eternal darkness.

He caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye and immediately turned toward it, his heart lifting when he saw a familiar jail cell door.  _ God _ , he never thought he’d be so happy to see the entrance to the Velvet Room, but it was something familiar and it was a  _ hell _ of a lot better than the darkness surrounding him. Maybe if he were lucky, Igor might have some answers for him—or at least, he might point Akira down the right path to fixing this mess.

Akira rushed toward the door and opened it, letting out a relieved sigh when he looked around to find himself in the same familiar jail cell.

From across the room, Igor chuckled, a grin on his face as he eyed Akira. “It seems that you’ve found yourself in quite the interesting predicament, Trickster.”

Akira gripped the cell bars shakily. “How do I fix this?”

“Show some respect, Inmate!” Caroline hit her baton against the bars. “You got yourself into this mess; you have no right to be demanding answers!”

Akira winced. “You’re right. I just can’t let that thing—whatever it is—run around in my body. I don’t know what it’s planning on doing, but if there’s even the slightest chance that it’s going to hurt my friends….”

Justine looked down at her clipboard, humming slightly before glancing back up at Akira. “They go by many different names:  _ doppelganger _ ,  _ fetch _ ,  _ ankou _ —regardless of its title, it seems that you made a deal with a creature that steals the identity of a person, leaving them trapped in its place. Should you stay without a body for too long, you too will lose your own identity and will become just the same as that creature.”

“If I don’t get my body back, I’ll end up stealing someone else’s identity instead?” Akira tightened his grip on the bars, pressing his forehead against them in frustration. “I didn’t want any of this to happen. I just wanted a  _ break _ ….”

“And you got your break— _ permanently _ , if you don’t do something to fix this,” Caroline responded coldly, prompting another wince from Akira.

The sound of a quiet laugh pulled Akira’s attention away from the attendants and over to Igor, who steepled his fingers under his chin.

“Just think of this as another part of your rehabilitation,” Igor said, and his carefree tone was as irritating to Akira as it was relieving. It meant, in a twisted way, that there was some sort of way to get through this. “Put faith in the bonds that you’ve created, and use them to break free of this unexpected twist in your fate.”

Bonds? Was Igor talking about his friends? Akira’s eyes widened slightly in realization.

What he wasn’t limited to the one mirror in his room?

It was a long shot, but it was more hope than he’d had before entering the Velvet Room, so Akira genuinely thanked Igor and the twins before returning to the darkness of the Void.

Now, to figure out how to navigate this endless expanse of darkness in order to find his way to his friends. Akira narrowed his eyes in determination as he began to move. If he could get in touch with at least one of his friends, everything would be alright. He trusted each and every one of them with his life, and he knew without a doubt that they would do everything in their power to help him once they found out what had happened.

All Akira could hope was that he could get through to them before it was too late.

* * *

Akira sped through the darkness, searching for any sign of a light that would lead him to a bedroom mirror that would connect him to his friends. Though he knew it would be an invasion of privacy to be peering into someone else’s room, desperate times called for desperate measures, and Akira could only hope that his friends would forgive him once he apologized and explained the situation to them later.

Either fate was being kind to him, or he had just gotten extremely lucky,because when he finally managed to find another mirror, one look through it revealed a familiar face wandering around her bedroom.

“ _ Ann! _ ” Akira banged on the mirror, cursing under his breath when Ann didn’t even glance in his direction. 

He’d been so focused on finding one of his friends that he didn’t even think about the possibility of them not being able to hear him or see him. What if Joker had only been able to communicate with him because he was using his identity? What if he was going to be trapped here, so close to reaching his friends yet so far away? What if—

Ann suddenly turned to face the mirror, an outfit in her hands as she modeled it against her body.

Even if he knew it was futile, Akira tried again, banging his fist on the mirror and shouting her name.

“ _ Ann, come on, you have to be able to hear me, or see me, or  _ **_something_ ** _! _ ”

Ann jumped slightly, her eyes widening as she looked at the mirror—and for one blessed moment, Akira’s heart lifted in hope.

Maybe she saw him, maybe she heard him, maybe—

Ann frowned and shook her head, laughing quietly to herself. “I must be seeing things.”

“ _ You’re not— Ann, please, I’m right here— _ ”

Ann hummed to herself as she turned away from the mirror and went back over to her closet, and Akira’s heart sank as quickly as it had lifted. He took a step back, shaking his head slightly and narrowing his eyes. Just because one of his friends hadn’t seen or heard him didn’t mean that all hope was lost—he would keep trying, seeking each of them out and trying to reach them for as long as it took. There had to be at least  _ one _ of his friends that would see him and realize what had happened to him.

Akira couldn’t let go of hope, not yet.

He was too terrified of what would happen when he finally gave up.

* * *

Akira kept moving from mirror to mirror, trying to contact each of his friends one by one.

Futaba didn’t have a mirror in her room, which, while inconvenient, taught Akira that he wasn’t just limited to physical mirrors: he could look through anything that had a reflective surface apparently, if being able to see Futaba through each of the many computer screens and TV monitors in her room was any indication.

Unfortunately, a computer screen didn’t exactly make for the best method of reaching out to his friend—not only was she already completely engrossed in whatever she was working on, but the light reflecting off of the screens in the dark room made it nearly impossible for him to see Futaba, which could only mean it was nearly impossible for her to see him as well. Looking through the TV monitors on the wall above Futaba’s bed proved to be just as futile, as Futaba had her back turned to him and her headphones on.

Akira moved on to the next teammate that he could find,which happened to be Yusuke, who also apparently didn’t own a mirror. The only reflective surface that Akira could see through was Yusuke’s phone, which was perched nearby at just a close enough angle that he could barely make out the artist.

Yusuke seemed to be completely engrossed in whatever he was painting on the easel in front of him, and Akira knew that even if he’d physically been in front of him, he would never have been able to break Yusuke’s concentration enough to catch his attention.

With an aggravated sigh, he inwardly cursed the limits of how he could contact his friends. Honestly, he knew he should be grateful that he was able to track down and see his friends at all: he wasn’t sure if it was by Igor’s doing somehow, or if it was just the close bond that he shared with his teammates that drew him to them instead of making him search through each and every reflective surface in all of Tokyo to find them.

Akira pulled his focus back into searching for another mirror. Yet again, however, the best that he could find was another computer monitor—though at least this laptop was turned off, making it much easier to see into what appeared to be Makoto’s bedroom, judging from all of the law textbooks he could just barely make out off to the side and the Buchimaru plush sitting on the bed.

Thankfully, though the room was empty, he didn’t have to wait long before Makoto entered, and he watched as she made her way over to her bed and sat down with a drawn-out sigh, not even sparing her laptop a glance.

“ _ Makoto! _ ” Akira knew he was being ridiculous by this point, but he had to keep trying, even if he knew by now that no one could hear him.

Akira’s heart jumped into his throat as Makoto suddenly lifted her gaze, before hitting his forehead against the glass in frustration as he heard Sae’s voice and realized Makoto was only glancing over at her sister, not him.

Yet, after her sister left the room, Makoto rose to her feet, glancing at the laptop. Her gaze flickered slightly in surprise before she shook her head.

“I must be more tired than I thought.” Makoto smiled weakly. “For a second, I thought—”

She let out a quiet breath and ran a hand through her hair, oblivious to Akira’s attempts to catch her attention once more to no avail. When she shifted her gaze away from the laptop and wandered over to her bookshelf instead, Akira knew that he had to give up and move on to the next person.

The problem was, he was starting to run out of teammates to contact.

_ Just Haru and Ryuji left. _

Part of him was nervous to try and approach Ryuji: he knew that out of all of the Phantom Thieves— and out of all of the people Akira knew, if he was completely honest—Ryuji was the closest with him, which  _ should _ have made him the first person that Akira would want to see… except he was worried that Ryuji wouldn’t be able to see him or hear him either. And if the person that he was closest with in all of Tokyo couldn’t even see him or hear him, then what hope did he have of reaching anyone at all?

Akira moved on, pushing aside his doubts and negative thoughts as he made his way to the next mirror that he could find. From the fancy painting he could see on the wall above the bed, Akira immediately knew he was in Haru’s bedroom.

Haru was humming to herself as she sat on the chair in front of her vanity, slowly running a brush through her curly hair—and though Akira felt bad to startle her, he couldn’t help but feel relieved when he saw her jump and drop her brush with a quiet, startled, “Oh!”

“ _ Haru, please tell me at least you can see me, or hear me, or something, _ ” Akira said as he pressed his hands against the mirror, his voice tinged with desperation.

“I thought I just,” Haru began, stopping and shaking her head. “Seeing his face so suddenly—I wonder if that means something?”

Akira groaned in frustration as she rose to her feet and made her way over to her bed. “ _ It  _ **_means_ ** _ I’m right here! _ ” His agitation soon gave way to dread as she picked up her phone. “ _ No, no, no, Haru, please don’t tell me you’re going to _ —”

Akira never thought he would curse Haru’s kind nature until the moment he heard her calling Joker, his heart dropping as he listened to the one-sided conversation.

“Akira? I’m terribly sorry to bother you,” Haru hesitated, her face flushed in embarrassment. “I—oh, perhaps I’m overthinking things, but I just—I got a bad feeling, and I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

She paused for a moment, listening to the person on the other line before smiling. “I’m glad to hear that, then. Sorry again for disturbing you so late.” She nodded slightly, though Joker wouldn’t be able to see it. “You too, goodnight!”

The tension drained from Akira’s frame as he leaned against the mirror—he’d expected Haru to bring up having seen his reflection, but thankfully it seemed that she either changed her mind about asking at the last second, or decided it wasn’t worth bringing up at all. Either way, it meant that he was safe for a little bit longer. The last thing he needed was Joker finding out that he was trying to get in contact with his friends—who knew what Joker would do to them, or to Akira for that matter?

Although he figured that Haru was a lost cause at this point, he felt slightly uplifted by how close he’d managed to get. The fact that Haru called Joker meant that she without a doubt saw him, if only briefly, which meant that Ann and Makoto had seen him as well, even if they both brushed it off as their imagination. With renewed determination, Akira decided to move on to the last person in their group.

Ryuji may not have had a mirror in his room, but Akira knew that, with how often Ryuji was playing video games, his TV would be the best bet. If he wasn’t playing games, Akira figured he would at least be able to get in contact with Ryuji through his phone, since he preferred using it to his laptop. Yet, looking through both Ryuji’s TV and his phone seemed to be fruitless endeavors: Ryuji’s bedroom seemed to be completely empty, and his phone was, from what Akira could tell, sitting in his pocket untouched, which left Akira with one last, desperate option.

The bathroom mirror.

Thankfully, he was lucky enough that Ryuji was just brushing his teeth in the bathroom, so that at least spared him from seeing anything that he wasn’t meant to see.

“ _ Ryuji! _ ”

Ryuji glanced up at the bathroom mirror, doing a double-take and stumbling backwards in surprise as he choked on the toothpaste in his mouth. Akira couldn’t help but grimace in response. Maybe he could have timed that a bit better, but to be fair, he hadn’t expected Ryuji to react so quickly. Whether it was coincidence or Ryuji actually hearing him, Akira couldn’t say, but regardless, it was the best and most concrete reaction that he’d gotten so far.

Ryuji coughed and spit the toothpaste into the sink with a groan, washing his mouth out before glancing back up at the mirror with a grimace. “The hell was that?” He squinted as he looked at the mirror, opening the mirrored cabinet door and looking behind it as if trying to figure out what the hell had prompted the weird shifting in his reflection. When he closed the cabinet, he yelped as if he briefly caught sight of Akira, who had his hands pressed against the glass and his eyes wide as he mouthed Ryuji’s name.

“Nope, no, fuck this.” Ryuji warily backed away from the mirror, his face pale. “I am  _ not _ dealing with this horror movie shit.”

With that, Ryuji swiftly exited the bathroom, and Akira’s heart sunk as his last bit of hope fled along with him.

What more could he even do at this point? He’d already tried to contact all of his friends, and none of them—not even Ryuji—had acknowledged or believed that he was really there in front of him.

Akira slowly slid down to his knees in defeat, a small, humorless laugh slipping out.

This is what he deserved, wasn’t it?

It was his punishment for being so weak—he didn’t deserve to be their leader, he didn’t deserve to have the fate of the world on his shoulders, he didn’t deserve to even have his body and his life back if he was pathetic enough to lose them to some identity-stealing creature, all for one night’s rest.

Like Caroline had said, he got what he wished for: now he was never going to have to deal with the burdens weighing him down ever again.

And his friends...

Akira shakily forced himself back up to his feet.

He couldn’t abandon his friends. It didn’t matter what happened to him anymore, but he couldn’t give up when there was even the slightest chance that this creature running around in his body could do something to the people he cared about. If attempting to contact his friends in their homes wasn’t enough to get their attention, then he just had to figure out a different approach.

With that in mind, Akira turned around with a determined expression and began heading back toward the entrance to the Velvet Room.


	2. Chapter 2

“Welcome back, Trickster.”

Akira leaned against the cell bars, his exhaustion quickly beginning to catch up with him now that he had a physical floor beneath his feet.

“I was able to find my friends, but I couldn’t get through to them,” Akira said quietly. “I don’t think they were able to hear me, and the ones that actually saw me brushed it off as their eyes playing tricks on them. How am I supposed to convince them that my body was stolen if I can’t even communicate with them?”

“Don’t think that we’re going to give you all the answers, Inmate,” Caroline exclaimed, turning to glare at him. “This is a part of your rehabilitation now—you have to figure things out on your own.”

Akira groaned, moving away from the cell bars so he could plop himself down onto the bed. “I know, I know. I got myself into this mess, and I have to figure out a way to get myself out of it.”

“If you understand that much, then perhaps you aren’t beyond all hope,” Justine commented quietly. “There are options that you haven’t thought of yet. Take your time, and try to discover them for yourself.”

“Options that I haven’t thought of yet,” Akira murmured, turning his musing inward as he stared up at the jail cell ceiling.

If he could still come to the Velvet Room, then he wasn’t physically limited to that void—it just meant that he was cut off from the outside world, but maybe… maybe the Velvet Room wasn’t the only place he could access? The gears slowly began turning in Akira’s mind, and he sat up and looked over at Justine. “If I can come to the Velvet Room, does that mean it’s possible for me to go into the Metaverse as well?”

A small smile flitted across Justine’s face, the expression so quick that Akira almost missed it entirely. “That is correct, Inmate. Just as you could freely travel between the Velvet Room and the Metaverse before, you can travel there in your current state as well—with some limitations, of course.”

“Limitations?” Akira frowned as he thought it over. He technically didn’t have a body, so even if he _did_ go to the Metaverse, he doubted he would be able to do all that much.

Justine nodded. “If you still wish to try, I believe your friends are going into Mementos as we speak.”

Akira immediately shot up from of the bed. “What _?_ Why?”

Justine shrugged, and Akira ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

“Tell me how to get to Mementos from here,” he said sharply as he approached the cell’s bars to properly face her. “I need to keep my friends away from Joker.”

“We don’t owe you anything, Inmate,” Caroline said with a scowl. “You’re in no position to be making demands.”

Akira grimaced. “You’re right, I’m sorry. _Please_ , how do I get to Mementos from here?”

Caroline huffed. “You should already know that by now. You travel between the Metaverse and the Velvet Room all the time.”

With a frown, Akira glanced behind him at the blue, glowing cell door. If there was only one exit in the room, then maybe it was less about finding a different way there, and more about focusing on what he wanted to find as he opened the door and stepped through, the area shifting and changing around him.

He reached out and grasped the handle of the door. He couldn’t go back to that darkness. He needed to make sure his friends were okay.

Though his surroundings settled into the familiar entrance level of Mementos, his relief immediately succumbed to dread as he noticed two things.

One: he was completely translucent, almost to the point where he could barely see himself; and two: his friends were already in Mementos, lingering on the entrance floor as they discussed their plan of action with their leader.

Their leader who _wasn’t him_.

Akira shuddered—in anger, not in fear, definitely—as he looked at Joker, taking in everything about him that was so eerily similar to himself: the way he carried himself, the expression on his face, his tone of voice, even the way he appraised everyone. No wonder no one could tell the difference.

He was so captivated by Joker’s effortless interactions with his teammates, as if he’d been with them all this time, that he was completely unprepared for Joker to look over at him.

Not through him, not around him— _directly at him_.

Akira swallowed thickly as time seemed to crawl to a halt, their gazes locked.

 _Fuck_.

Frozen in place, Akira tried to anticipate Joker’s next move. Would Joker do anything to call attention to him? Probably not, if he was trying to keep Akira’s identity for himself—unless he tried to spin it as Akira being the creature that was trying to take his body away, and _god_ if Joker tried to turn his teammates against him there was no way in hell that Akira would be able to fight back against them, even if he had all of his Personas at his dispense.

For better or for worse, Joker broke eye contact with a smirk, and Akira wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or enraged. Joker obviously didn’t see him as a threat. Here Akira was, fearing for his very existence, while Joker was laughing it up with his friends, in his body, living his life—

 _You asked for this,_ a voice reminded Akira from the back of his mind, and honestly Akira wasn’t even sure if it was his own voice, Joker’s, or whoever else was trying to make his life a living hell at this point. Regardless, the voice was right, as frustrating as it was.

Yet that made him all the more determined to fix this mess and reclaim his friends, his body, and his life from Joker.

At the very least, Joker didn’t seem to have any sort of untoward intentions toward his friends at the moment: there was no hint of him reaching for his dagger, no look of malice in his face—it was almost like he was just enjoying spending time with them.

Justine’s warning raced through his mind: if he stayed without an identity for too long, he would end up losing his sense of self and trying to steal someone else’s identity to replace it. He couldn’t help but wonder if Joker was originally another person, with their own life and friends that they’d lost in a moment of weakness just as he had.

Unfortunately, however, there was too much at stake for Akira to start feeling sympathetic toward Joker. It was more than just wanting to get his body back for the sake of getting his body back—the fate of the world was essentially resting on his shoulders, and he couldn’t afford to float around in some empty space while someone else lived his life for him.

The sound of movement pulled Akira from his thoughts, and he paled as he saw the group moving toward the entrance to the next floor of Mementos.

“ _Guys, wait!_ ” Akira rushed after them without worrying about any possible interference from Joker. He couldn’t just stand here and let them leave, not when they were so close. “ _Get away from him! That’s not me!_ ”

No one even glanced in his direction. Joker’s amused smile was the only sign that anyone had actually heard him, but what good was it if the only person that could see and hear him was the one person who wasn’t going to do anything to help him?

“Huh?” Morgana glanced backward. “Did you say something, Joker?”

“ _Morgana,_ ” Akira called, “ _that’s not the real Joker!_ ”

“No, I didn’t say anything at all,” Joker spoke calmly over Akira’s futile shouting. “Are you ready to go?”

Morgana visibly hesitated, watching Joker and—for one single, heart-stopping moment where Akira felt a flicker of hope—glancing behind Joker in Akira’s general direction, before finally nodding and turning away.

Akira wanted to scream in frustration as he watched his friends pile into the Monabus—why was it that he kept getting so close, only for everything in the universe to keep screwing him over like this? Wasn’t everything that he’d been through in the past few months enough?

Akira didn’t even realize that he’d begun running after the retreating bus until he heard Justine’s voice calling out to him.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Akira jerked to a halt and looked back at the warden, doing his best not to glare as he calmly forced out, “ _And why not?_ ”

“Because,” she began, her tone and expression both neutral as she toyed with her clipboard, “your cognition here is weak, and Mementos is ever-changing. Even if you followed them, there’s no guarantee that you would end up in the same space that they are in, or that you would be able to find your way back here on your own, either—and certainly not in one piece with no way to defend yourself.”

Akira paused at that, his frustration growing as he realized that she was absolutely right—he had no way of making sure that he would end up in the same space as them with how much Mementos constantly changed and shifted, nor was he strong enough as he was currently to defend himself from any Shadows wandering around.

In other words, all he could do was sit here, wait for them to come back, and hope that maybe somehow things would be different and they would hear him or see him.

Great _._

Normally Akira considered himself a patient person, but with nothing else to do other than stew in his own irritation, he felt his patience quickly run dry. He paced back and forth along the floor of Mementos for what felt like forever as Justine watched his restless movements in a mixture of interest and slight amusement.

“Inmate, I don’t believe that pacing will bring them back any sooner.”

“What else am I supposed to do, then?” Akira replied, plopping himself down on the ground next to Justine with a drawn-out sigh. “I’m going stir-crazy and it’s only been one day.”

“That’s better than resigning yourself to your fate, isn’t it?”

Akira frowned. “It doesn’t make things any easier, though.”

“Trying to change your fate is never a simple thing.”

“Have you ever tried to change your fate?” Akira glanced up at Justine curiously. “There has to be more to you and Caroline than just being wardens. Like the list that you two have—”

“It seems that your friends will be returning shortly,” Justine cut Akira off smoothly, the slight tightening of her hands around her clipboard the only indication of how unsettled she was by the topic. Akira noted her reaction with curiosity, but decided not to push at the moment. He could always talk more about his suspicions regarding Caroline and Justine’s situation after his own crazy situation was sorted out.

True to Justine’s word, Akira caught sight of the Monabus reappearing, and he quickly rose to his feet as he watched the group emerge from the bus mid-conversation about the requests that they managed to fulfill.

Joker hardly even spared Akira a glance as he walked toward the exit alongside Morgana, which Akira would have been annoyed about if his doppelganger hadn’t been the first to leave Mementos, with the rest of his teammates trailing just far enough behind that it gave Akira a small window of opportunity to make contact with them without worrying about Joker interfering in some way.

Akira rushed over toward his teammates, reaching out to each one in turn as he called out their names. Each time, his hands passed right through them.

His hand phased through Ryuji’s shoulder as he made a futile grab for him, trying to at least slow down one of his friends so they would stop and notice him—and for one brief, heart-lifting moment, Ryuji did indeed come to a stop as his brows furrowed in confusion.

“What’s wrong?” Ann asked, glancing back at Ryuji when she noticed him pause.

“I dunno, I just thought I heard someone saying my name.” Ryuji rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile. “Must’ve been my imagination. Sorry, let’s go.”

And just like that, Akira’s hope disappeared once more as the last of his teammates exited the Metaverse, leaving him alone with Justine.

“Are you giving up, Inmate?” she asked after a moment of silence, prompting a quiet huff from Akira.

“Getting depressed and frustrated isn’t the same as giving up,” Akira muttered, running a hand over his face as he let out a sigh.

Justine nodded in approval. “I see. Your rehabilitation is coming along quite well.”

Akira frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

“Had this happened to you at the beginning of your rehabilitation, you surely wouldn’t have possessed the necessary willpower to push onward despite the futility of your efforts.”

“That’s true, I guess,” Akira admitted reluctantly. “I’ve become much more stubborn since arriving in Tokyo, if nothing else.”

Justine cracked a very small, blink-and-you’d-miss-it smile at that. “You certainly have.”

He forced himself to push aside all his negative thoughts as he smiled at Justine and began heading toward the Velvet Room door.  “I guess it’s back to work for me, then.”

With his limited options, he figured all he could really do was continue going back and forth between the Void and the Metaverse until at least one of his teammates picked up on what was going on—even if it proved to be useless in the end, it was better than just giving up and accepting his fate.

If he didn’t accept the fate of being on probation for a crime he never committed, and if he didn’t accept the fate that he was trying to change with his “rehabilitation,” then Akira sure as hell wasn’t going to just give up and let someone else take his life away from him.

No matter how long it took, Akira swore he would find a way to get his body back.

* * *

Having his own existence for the first time in what felt like an eternity was both a relief, and something that was taking a lot of getting used to.

Joker—or “Akira,” he supposed, though he was slightly more partial to the first name that he’d attached himself to as a being without an existence of his own—was grateful for the memories that lingered in his new body, allowing him to blend in and seamlessly pick up Akira’s life where he’d left off, with no one any the wiser.

Even Morgana didn’t notice anything, and he was around Akira almost twenty-four-seven—and Joker had a feeling that carrying around a talking cat should be odd, yet it felt completely normal and all of Akira’s friends treated it like a regular occurrence, so Joker decided to just accept it.

After all, his own existence—or lack thereof—was almost as odd, so who was he to question a talking cat?

The matter of the Metaverse was another oddity that he’d decided to just accept without question, instead merely enjoying the experience and feeling grateful that the life he’d managed to steal was such an interesting one. Even with the probation, and the students badmouthing Akira behind his back, and the dangers of running around stealing treasures and stealing hearts, it was still a good life—Akira truly was a fool for even _considering_ giving it all up for just a moment’s rest, even if his decision had been under the false assumption that it would only be for a day.

Hell, Akira’s friends alone made his life worth holding on to.

Joker couldn’t help but wonder, sitting at a diner booth across from Ann as he listened to her talk about her latest modeling job, if in his previous life he’d had any friends who were as trusting and as loyal as Akira’s friends were with him.

It was hard to suppress his laughter when he realized just how much confidence they had in Akira: they literally put their lives in his hands, following his orders to the letter, trusting him with all their funds and all their inventory… the faith that they had in their leader was staggering, almost to the point of being overwhelming.

Almost. Joker wasn’t weak enough to fall into the same rut that Akira found himself in.

So what if everything was on his shoulders? It was a privilege, especially coming from spending an eternity trapped in the nothingness of the Void, and Joker wasn’t planning on giving that up any time soon.

It didn’t matter that Akira had somehow managed to find his way into Mementos—it was obvious that he wouldn’t be able to alert any of his friends to his presence, so he wasn’t in any way a threat. All it meant was that he would have the pleasure of watching Akira's spirit slowly shatter as he lost his hope along with his very self until there was nothing left, with the friends that had trusted and valued him so dearly none the wiser.

Joker wouldn't go out of his way to do anything to him—not so much from a lack of maliciousness, but rather because he saw no need to waste his time and energy on a problem that would take care of itself in due time. However, he couldn't help but think—as he reached out to swipe a forkful of Ann’s cake and laughed as she huffed at him over it—that even if Akira somehow did end up becoming a threat to him, he wasn’t going to just let Akira take his body back and force him back into that empty void.

No matter what, Joker was going to cling onto this new life with everything he had.

And if he had to erase someone else's life in the process? Then so be it.

* * *

Ryuji couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very, _very_ wrong.

It started a few days ago, when he met up with Akira after school—which was completely normal, and honestly not something to dwell on, except...

Except something about Akira felt different, and it drove him crazy that he couldn’t pin down exactly what was wrong.

The more attention he paid to his best friend, the more he started to notice little things—or the absence of little things, he supposed: small ticks that were normally there but now weren’t, like how Akira didn’t toy with the fringe of his bangs mid-conversation anymore, or how he wasn’t idly twirling his pencil in his hand when they sat together to work on homework, or how he would stand straight instead of leaning a bit more on his left leg when they were standing around. Basically, all things that Ryuji was way too embarrassed to actually admit noticing, because that would _also_ mean admitting that he paid much more attention to Akira than was probably normal for two completely platonic friends, and he wasn’t exactly sure he was ready to broach that subject with the person in question just yet, if ever.

To top it all off, there were some really freaky moments over the course of the past few days that Ryuji wished he could just brush off as his eyes playing tricks on him—but catching a glimpse of Akira’s face in his bathroom mirror; on his TV screen, his phone screen, and his laptop screen; in the windows of stores that he walked past on his way to school; and even in the reflection of a glass that he’d taken out of the cabinet to drink from only to drop it in startled shock, the shards each reflecting Akira’s panicked face before disappearing in the blink of an eye….

Either Ryuji was going crazy, or something _really fucking weird_ was going on.

Not to mention the moments in the Metaverse: the occasional chill that ran through his body, like something was passing through him, or the sound of his name that barely reached his ears over the incessant whispers that seemed to fill the silence of Mementos—and _god_ like the noises weren’t creepy enough without hearing his name occasionally mixed in, the sound gradually growing more desperate the more times he heard it.

Ryuji knew that he was probably just being paranoid, especially if no one else was mentioning seeing or hearing or feeling any of this stuff, but his gut was almost never wrong. And right now his gut was screaming at him, telling him that something wasn’t right.

Still, it’s not like he could really _do_ anything, right? He already tried questioning Akira—small, subtle questions, trying to see if he was feeling alright or if anything felt wrong—but he received nothing for his troubles except reassurances that, oddly enough, weren’t as reassuring as they were probably supposed to feel. But if there was something wrong, then the rest of his friends would’ve picked up on it, too, right?

So, all he could do was push the trepidation aside and continue going about his life like everything was normal, the days continuing to pass by.

Until one night when he closed the bathroom cabinet mirror and found Akira’s reflection staring back at him yet again, looking almost as surprised as Ryuji himself.

His first instinct was to put as much distance between himself and what he now suspected to be some kind of cursed or haunted mirror and call Akira, or Ann, or _someone_ to make sure that he wasn’t going crazy.

Without a second to calm his spiked heart rate, Ryuji saw Akira’s face immediately show up on the screen of his phone—and he let out what was certainly _not_ a scream as he reflexively moved to throw his phone, only stopping when he properly caught sight of Akira’s face out of the corner of his eye.

At first, Ryuji thought Akira looked freaked out, but now that he got a better look, Akira’s expression went way beyond that: he looked more shaken and more desperate than Ryuji could ever remember, his eyes wide as his mouth moved, and the sight was even more unsettling when no voice accompanied whatever Akira was trying to say.

Ryuji paled as he focused enough to read Akira’s lips.

_Ry u ji_

Swallowing thickly, Ryuji shakily leveled the phone with his face so he could properly look at it, his voice coming out more quietly than intended as he tentatively breathed out a single word.

“Akira?”

When Ryuji saw Akira’s lips stop moving, his expression obviously stunned into silence by the one simple utterance of his name, Ryuji knew that this was seriously happening. There was no faking the myriad of emotions that Ryuji could just barely make out in Akira’s eyes on the dim reflection on his screen: from shock, to relief, before finally settling on panicked desperation as he began speaking with rapid-fire speed, his lips moving too fast for Ryuji to follow.

“Wait, wait, hold on! I—Akira, if that’s really you, I can’t hear you or anything, I can only see you.”

It was obvious that Akira could at least hear him, even if it didn’t go both ways, since his mouth suddenly stopped moving and his brows furrowed in obvious frustration. Akira seemed to fall into thought for a moment before speaking again, his mouth moving slowly so Ryuji could read his lips more easily.

“Bathroom... mirror?” Ryuji repeated, before perking up in realization. “Oh, go to the bathroom mirror?”

Akira nodded before disappearing from the screen of Ryuji’s phone, and Ryuji hastily made his way back to the bathroom, feeling surprisingly relieved when he could see Akira more clearly.

“Okay,” he began warily, “now can you tell me what the hell’s going on?”

* * *

Akira was pretty sure he had never felt more relieved in his entire life than the moment he heard Ryuji say his name.

The few seconds that it took for Ryuji to move into the bathroom and back into his line of sight felt more like decades, and he couldn’t help but relax the slightest bit once he finally saw Ryuji enter the room. Frowning at Ryuji’s question, Akira pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened up the memo app, inwardly feeling grateful for cognitive manipulation: Akira could never picture himself without his phone, and thus Akira had his phone with him—which, while useless with no signal to make calls or send text with, was proving to be his one saving grace for communicating with Ryuji. He typed out his response and pointed it toward the mirror in hopes that Ryuji would be able to read it.

Ryuji frowned, his brows furrowing as he leaned forward slightly before letting out a sigh. “No good, dude—it’s backwards, I can barely read it.”

Akira groaned and let his head fall forward against the mirror.

Of _course_ now that someone finally acknowledged his existence, after days upon days of practically chasing after his friends and showing up in every last reflective surface that he could find in an attempt to get at least one of them to react with more than just startled indifference, he couldn’t even communicate with him.

This was almost crueler than not being acknowledged at all.

“Oh!”

Ryuji’s exclamation caught Akira’s attention, and he quickly straightened up to look at him.

“I think I’ve got an idea—hold on, I’ll be right back.”

He rushed out of the room, and, unable to help his curiosity, Akira decided to follow him, checking Ryuji’s bedroom first through his TV before moving on to the mirror in Ryuji’s mother’s bedroom. He just barely caught sight of Ryuji rummaging through his mother’s stuff and straightening up with a victorious grin.

Unsure of whether Ryuji would hear him, Akira knocked on the mirror to try and catch his attention, and was surprised when Ryuji actually glanced over.

Ryuji made his way over to the mirror. “So you can like, what, just show up in any mirror at all?”

Akira nodded and gestured to Ryuji’s hand with a curious expression.

“Oh, right.” Ryuji grinned and opened up the compact mirror in his hand. “I remembered my ma had one of these mirrors laying around that she uses for her makeup ‘n’ stuff—I thought, I dunno, maybe I could try ‘n’ use it to read what you’re typing?” He shrugged weakly. “It’s the best idea I’ve got, other than sitting here for hours trying to read stuff backwards.”

Akira pulled his phone back out and typed up a quick, “ _Alright, can you read this?_ ” He held his phone up to the mirror, watching as Ryuji held up the compact mirror and tried to angle both it and himself so that he could reflect the reflection before he finally grinned and whooped in victory.

“Got it! I can read it.”

Akira’s expression relaxed in relief, and he heaved out a long sigh as he turned his phone back around and typed another message.

“ _The next time someone even comes close to implying that you’re not a genius, I swear I’ll personally punch them._ ”

Ryuji laughed, his face flushing lightly in embarrassment. “C’mon dude, it’s really not that big of a deal. I’m sure anyone would’ve been able to figure something like this out.” His smile faded into a more serious look as he added, “But anyway, what the hell’s going on? How’d you end up in a mirror?”

Akira’s slight smile immediately shifted to a frown as he began typing on his phone, his fingers shaking slightly and his brows furrowing in frustration as he had to retype a few things.

“ _It was my fault. I still don’t understand how exactly it found me or why, but something tricked me—it showed up in my mirror looking like Joker and pretended to be me, offering to take my place for a day so I could get some rest. I shouldn’t have accepted, but the offer was just too tempting to resist. By the time I realized that I’d been tricked into giving up my body, it was already too late._ ”

“Wait, wait, hold on—you’re saying that there’s something running around in your body while you’re stuck in there? So that means the Akira I saw today...”

Ryuji trailed off as he saw Akira starting to type again, waiting to see what else he had to say.

“ _Ryuji, it’s not just today. I’ve been trapped in here for almost a week now; I was honestly starting to lose hope._ ”

Ryuji paled. “Holy shit, a whole _week?_ Dude, how the hell was that thing able to pretend to be you for a whole _week_ without anyone noticing?” He dropped his gaze in a mixture of anger and guilt as he added, “How the hell was it able to get away with this without _me_ noticing? I mean yeah, there were a few things here ‘n’ there that are starting to make sense now that I think about it, but like, shit… I should’ve realized sooner. I’m so sorry.”

Akira’s heart clenched at the expression on Ryuji’s face. He hated how he couldn’t even reach out to put a reassuring hand on Ryuji’s shoulder—all he could do was wait until Ryuji finally looked back up at him so he could type up a response.

“ _It’s not your fault, Ryuji. I’m just grateful that you acknowledged me at all—I’ve been going to everyone and trying to get their attention, but you’re the only one that didn’t brush me off as your mind playing tricks on you._ ”

Ryuji winced at that. “I know, but dude, I _know_ this wasn’t the first time you tried to get in contact with me. I thought I was going crazy with how many times I caught a glimpse of you here ‘n’ there.”

“ _All that matters is that you’re talking with me now. I’m more concerned about trying to figure out how to get my body back than how long it took for anyone to realize I was here._ ”

“How the hell are we gonna do that, though?” Ryuji frowned. “I doubt it’ll be as easy as just calling that bastard out.”

“ _Please don’t,_ ” Akira quickly typed, turning his phone for just long enough for Ryuji to read the message before beginning to type again, his expression a bit frantic. “ _He can’t know that you know I’m here—I have no idea what he’ll try and do to you or the rest of the team if he finds out, not to mention that there’s no telling what he could do to me either. He might even be able to completely erase my existence in the Metaverse for all I know._ ”

Ryuji’s brows furrowed. “How can he do anything to you in the Metaverse?”

“ _I can travel to the Metaverse, but my presence there is weak—most likely because he’s the only one that knows that I exist at all. I tried calling out to everyone there, but you and Morgana were the only ones that ever showed any sign of hearing me, and Morgana is impossible for me to contact outside of the Metaverse._ ” Akira pulled his phone back to continue typing after Ryuji finished reading, his expression apologetic as he added, “ _I’m sorry to have to dump my problems on you like this, Ryuji. We all had enough to deal with as it was without me adding another problem to the list._ ”

Ryuji waved Akira’s apology off with a reassuring smile. “Dude, c’mon, you really think I’d hold it against you or refuse to help you? You’re my best friend, y’know I wouldn’t just abandon you.” His expression softened slightly as he added, “We’ll figure out a way to fix this whole mess, I promise.”

Akira’s expression relaxed in relief as he offered Ryuji a tentative smile in return.

“ _I still feel bad, but thank you, Ryuji. I appreciate that more than you’ll ever know._ ”

“So what’s the plan then, Leader?” Ryuji eyed Akira curiously. “You got any ideas how to fix this?”

Akira toyed with his phone in thought for a moment before typing out a response.

“ _For now, I just need you to lay low and observe him—see if there’s anything off about him, anything that looks like he has some sort of ulterior motive or plans to do anything with my body besides just stealing my identity from me._ ”

“That’s it?” Ryuji frowned, slightly disappointed. “No kicking ass, no dragging the truth outta him, nothing?”

Akira rolled his eyes in fond amusement. “ _No, Ryuji. I’d rather not jump into this and risk putting anyone in danger—just observe him for tomorrow, and then meet me in the Metaverse alone so we can talk face to face._ ”

Ryuji sighed, but nodded in agreement. “Alright, fine, got it. I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“ _And Ryuji?_ ”

“Hm?”

Akira hesitated for a moment, typing and retyping what he wanted to say before finally turning his phone back to face Ryuji.

“ _Seriously, thank you so much. I was trying not to lose hope, but after being stuck in here for so long, without being able to get anyone to notice me… I don’t know how much longer I would have been able to force myself to keep trying before giving up. I swear I’ll find a way to make all of this up to you, and please be careful: I don’t want you getting hurt or worse because of me._ ”

Ryuji’s expression softened slightly. “C’mon man, you should know by now that I’ve always got your back. I’m sorry it took so long for me to notice, but now that I know what’s going on, I promise I’ll find a way to help you—so don’t you dare even _think_ about giving up, okay?”

Taking a moment to observe Ryuji’s reassuring, determined expression, Akira smiled and before turning his attention down to his phone to type a response.

“ _Alright. We’ll figure this out together._ ”

Of course, he was still a bit worried—he had no idea how they would even start going about getting his body back, nor did he have any idea what Joker would do if he caught on to Ryuji learning the truth, though he doubted it would be anything good. Yet Akira couldn’t help but feel both relieved and elated to finally have someone to talk to and rely on to help him out of this mess.

Finally, the tide was starting to turn in his favor, and Akira was nothing if not good at turning around a less than favorable situation and coming out on top.

He just had to be patient a little bit longer. But how long did he have? Even now, he felt bits and pieces of his identity slipping away. What was his birthday? His favorite food? His grandparents’ names? The memories were growing foggy, and he was trying not to think about it too hard.

Now that he finally had a spark of hope reignited inside him, Akira was sure that he could hold himself together for one more day.


	3. Chapter 3

“I see you’re still here.”

The sound of a voice—his _own_ voice—addressing him caught Akira off-guard, pulling his attention away from his idle (and mainly one-sided) conversation with Justine and over to the entrance of Mementos.

“ _You—!!_ ”

Akira shot up to his feet, fear and anger warring in his expression as he glared at Joker.

He had come back to Mementos for lack of anywhere else to go, figuring it would at least feel less restrictive than sitting in a jail cell, and it would allow him to talk a bit more freely with Justine—who wasn’t exactly the best conversationalist, but was at least a more calming presence than her twin or Igor. It was the last place that he would have ever expected to run into Joker, and for a moment he couldn’t help the spike of fear that shot through him as he wondered if Joker had come looking for him to get rid of him while he was unable to defend himself—but Joker’s hands were free of any weapons and he was making no move to grab for his mask, leaving Akira puzzled and wary as to what his intentions were.

Another possibility was that he’d decided to go to the Velvet Room, though there wasn’t much sense to be made from that line of thought either—the fact that he could have gone to the door in Shibuya instead of going all the way into Mementos aside, neither Joker nor Justine seemed to so much as acknowledge one another, leaving Akira to wonder if Joker could even see her or the door next to her at all.

Not that he was going to be the one to bring the subject up. Last thing he wanted was to inadvertently introduce Joker to the Velvet Room and the Persona compendium it contained.

Akira decided to forego running through the possibilities in his mind in favor of taking a more direct approach as he hissed, “ _What are you doing here? And where’s Morgana?_ ”

“Morgana is off wandering around somewhere, if you really must know. As for what I’m doing here… well, that isn’t exactly your business, now is it?” With a mock-sympathetic expression, he added, “I would ask you the same, but I suppose if I’d had the choice between spending my time in the Void and being here, I would choose to spend all of my time here as well.”

(Distantly, Akira realized that Joker was assuming that he’d been here for the past few days since they had first seen one another in Mementos—which Akira was more than happy to play along with, if it meant keeping him from discovering that he’d managed to figure out how to access the Velvet Room and how to get in contact with Ryuji.)

Though relieved to hear that Joker hadn’t done anything to Morgana, he continued to glare at Joker as he said, “ _You know, if you gave me my body back, I wouldn’t have to waste my time sitting here doing nothing._ ”

“Do you really think I would say ‘oh yes, of course, I’ll return it right away’?” Joker watched Akira in a mixture of annoyance and amusement. “You were the fool that gave up such a good life for one night’s rest.”

“ _I didn’t give it up—you_ **_tricked_ ** _me into giving it up!_ ”

Joker shrugged, an airy smirk on his face. “Same difference in the end, isn’t it? It was your own fault for being so trusting.” He took a few steps closer to Akira as he added, “Just like those friends of yours—so blindly trusting, putting so much faith in ‘Akira’—”

Akira took a step forward in turn, his expression radiating cold fury. “ _I swear, if you do anything to them—_ ”

“Oh, don’t worry, that was never my intention.” Joker laughed as he saw the wary surprise in Akira’s expression. “Are you really in a position to be worrying about other people?”

“ _I can worry about whoever I want—and how do I know you’re even telling the truth?_ ”

“Whether you believe me or not is of no concern to me.” Joker waved a hand flippantly. “I merely want to keep this body and life for myself. I see no reason to get rid of your friends when they’re such good company, that’s all.”

Akira frowned, distrust still radiating off of him in waves as he observed Joker: though he didn’t appear to be lying, he also hadn’t appeared to be lying when he’d tricked Akira into giving up his body—so even if the thought of Joker having no desire to hurt his friends was tempting to believe, he couldn’t help but feel like it couldn’t be that simple.

“ _I won’t let you keep my body and my life,_ ” he protested.

“Oh?” Joker raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. “And what exactly are you going to do about it?”

As he watched Akira quietly seethe, his translucent form tense with frustration, Joker turned away with a smirk on his face. “That’s what I thought.”

“ _I’ll find a way, just you wait._ ”

“Be my guest,” Joker challenged, speaking over his shoulder as he ambled back towards the entrance of Mementos—either he'd only come to see if Akira was still here, or he’d decided not to do whatever he'd originally come to do since Akira was here watching him, Akira genuinely couldn't tell and wasn't sure which option was worse. “Just know that I won’t be giving this body up without a fight.”

Akira narrowed his eyes, Joker’s posture clearly indicating that he didn’t think Akira had even the slightest chance of taking his body back—but Akira forcefully reminded himself that that was a good thing; it meant that Joker honestly had no idea that Akira had managed to get in contact with Ryuji, and that he was going to meet with him the next day so the two of them could work out a plan.

Maybe if Akira was by himself, then things would have been as hopeless for him as Joker thought they were—even if Joker didn’t do anything to him, it was only a matter of time before Akira completely faded away. With Ryuji on his side, however, Akira knew that he would be able to turn the tables on Joker before that happened.

He could hold on for that long. He had to.

* * *

It was so incredibly difficult for Ryuji to keep his mouth shut the next day—which, in his defense, was difficult on any given day, but even more so now that he knew that some asshole had stolen his best friend’s body and was masquerading as him without anyone noticing.

To be fair, though, Joker—which is what Akira had decided to call the person in his body, to avoid confusion, though Ryuji personally preferred “fuckin’ body-snatching jerk”—was surprisingly good at imitating Akira, for someone that supposedly had no identity of his own.

Or maybe that was what made it so good at imitating Akira? Because it was like a blank slate or something? Ryuji had no clue. He was never one for understanding complicated stuff like this, and he wasn’t magically going to start getting any better at that now, unfortunately.

Regardless, now that Ryuji knew that Joker wasn’t really Akira, the differences were pretty much clear as day: the way he walked, the way he sat, the way he smiled and laughed—it was all similar, but not _exactly_ the same.

Maybe after this whole mess was figured out and after Akira was back in his body where he belonged, then Ryuji would allow himself to confess to Akira what being able to make those kinds of minute distinctions meant, beyond just being very good friends with Akira and knowing him very well.

Ryuji sighed and rested his hand in his chin as he sat in class, idly toying with his phone inside his desk to try and get through this boring lecture before meeting up with the group to go to Mementos—somewhere that he could actually be _useful_ , instead of just sitting and listening to things that he knew were never going to stick in his mind, and would never serve any purpose beyond giving everyone more of a reason to call him an idiot and laugh at him behind his back and to his face.

Besides, not paying attention now meant he had more of an excuse to ask Akira to help him review the materials later, before their next exam.

He pulled himself from his thoughts as he glanced down at his phone again, nearly jumping out of his skin when he saw Akira’s face looking up at him—before realizing that, duh, just because he wasn’t home didn’t mean that Akira couldn’t show up on his phone screen. Even if Ryuji couldn’t hear him, it was obvious from the look of disapproval on Akira’s face that he knew Ryuji wasn’t bothering to pay attention to the teacher when he should be at least making an effort.

Letting out a quiet, drawn-out sigh, Ryuji took the hint and put his phone down, forcing himself to try and pay attention for the last few minutes of class.

* * *

Although Ryuji wasn’t exactly the best actor, he thankfully was at least a step or two above Ann, so no one seemed to notice anything different about him despite him keeping a bit more distance from “Akira” than normal during their venture into the Metaverse together.

While everyone was paying attention to Joker going through one more run-down of their targets as Futaba searched for the floors that they would be hiding on, Ryuji’s gaze idly roamed the area—and came to a sudden halt as something caught his eye.

His eyes widened almost exactly in time with Akira’s as he saw the faint sight of his best friend standing off in the corner watching them, and he couldn’t help feeling a swell of relief that Akira had been right about being able to meet with him in the Metaverse.

Ryuji’s brows furrowed as Akira’s expression suddenly shifted from relief to panic, and he reflexively opened his mouth to ask him what was wrong before quickly snapping it shut, belatedly realizing the source of Akira’s sudden anxiety as he quickly looked away.

Right. Probably wouldn’t be a good idea for the group to catch him essentially staring off into space, and even worse if Joker caught him staring at someone that he, for all intents and purposes, shouldn’t even be able to see.

Ryuji nervously glanced at Joker, relaxing slightly when he realized that his focus was on Futaba and Morgana. At least he hadn’t blown things for Akira just yet. All he had to do now was get through this Mementos trip, make up some sort of excuse for staying behind, and properly talk with Akira about their next move.

Simple enough, right?

* * *

Ryuji seemed to forget that just because he came up with an excuse to stay behind in Mementos by himself, didn’t mean that the team would readily agree to it.

It didn’t exactly help that his excuse was flimsy at best—staying behind to train was one thing, but staying behind by himself to train wasn’t exactly the safest idea; even Ryuji himself could acknowledge that. Still, it was the most believable option he had and the one that would raise the least suspicion, so he kept stubbornly insisting that _yes_ he would be fine, _yes_ he had healing supplies on hand, _no_ he wouldn’t go too far down, _yes_ he would get all of his homework done when he got home (what was Makoto, his mom?), _no_ he wouldn’t stay too late, et cetera et cetera—until finally the group began to exit the Metaverse one by one until he was the last person left.

Well, the last _physical_ person, anyway.

Ryuji pushed his mask up to rest on top of his head as he met Akira’s gaze and made his way over to him, trying not to feel too unsettled when he got closer and realized that he could see straight through his friend.

“I thought they’d never leave,” Ryuji joked weakly.

Akira gave him a small, amused smile in response. “ _To be fair,_ ” he began, and Ryuji didn’t realize just how much of a relief hearing him speak would be until his voice reached his ears, distorted or not, “ _if the circumstances weren’t what they were, I would’ve been concerned about you staying behind on your own too._ ”

“Oh c’mon, y’know I can handle myself,” Ryuji replied with a faux-annoyed huff, unable to help himself from grinning as he saw the brief flicker of relief on Akira’s face as he confirmed that Ryuji could really hear him. “Anyways, what’s the plan now?”

For a moment, Akira contemplated telling Ryuji about Joker approaching him in Mementos last night, before deciding against it—there was no point in worrying Ryuji when Joker hadn’t actually done anything to him, and considering he was on limited time with Ryuji, it was more important to focus on what they originally agreed to meet up to discuss.

“ _Well, have you noticed anything as far as Joker’s behavior? Any signs of malice?_ ”

Ryuji rubbed the back of his head, his brows pinched in a mixture of frustration and confusion. “That’s the crazy thing—I haven’t noticed anything weird about him at all. I mean, there’s like, little things that are different, but overall he’s acting just like you do from what I’ve seen. He’s not trying to hurt anyone, or attack anyone, or _anything_ , not even when we were in the Metaverse together.”

Akira’s frown deepened—as much as he hated to admit it, Ryuji’s observations were matching up with what Joker had told him, and he wasn’t sure whether to feel irked or relieved by the realization.

“ _Then that means his only intent was to steal my identity._ ” Akira frowned. “ _It might not have even been specifically because of anything to do with the Metaverse or my abilities. I could have just been an easy enough target for him with how exhausted I’ve been recently._ ”

“If I’d noticed sooner—”

Akira waved him off. “ _You couldn’t have known, not when I was going out of my way to hide my exhaustion from everyone._ ”

Ryuji ran a hand through his hair with a frustrated expression before deciding to forego the back and forth of apologies and rebuttals for stuff that neither of them could change in favor of focusing on the here and now. “How’re you holding up?”

“ _I’m fine,_ ” was the lie that reflexively slipped out, but apparently Ryuji wasn’t buying it anymore—which Akira supposed was fair considering how he literally just admitted to hiding how completely _not_ fine he’d been for the past few months from everyone.

“ _Alright, I’m about as far from fine as I can possibly be right now._ ”

All of the stress and fear that he’d been trying to force himself to push aside began gradually trickling back as he spoke, admitting aloud what he didn’t even want to admit to himself: “ _Ryuji, I’m starting to forget things about who I am, stuff that I wouldn’t think twice about. I can barely remember any childhood memories, I can’t remember the name of the town I was born and raised in, and god, Ryuji, I can’t even remember my own_ **_birthday_ ** _anymore—_ ”

“ **_Akira!_ **”

Ryuji reflexively reached out to grab Akira’s shoulders as he saw him beginning to panic, only for all the color to drain from both of their faces as Ryuji’s hands passed right through and _into_ Akira’s body, causing Ryuji to recoil backwards with a shiver in time with Akira flinching and pulling away from him. He knew that Akira didn’t have a body anymore, but even talking with his transparent form didn’t drive that fact home as hard as seeing his hands pass right through his friend’s body did, and it took a few seconds for both Ryuji and Akira to try and compose themselves as the gravity of the situation sunk in once more.

“Shit, I’m sorry.” Ryuji moved back toward Akira with a determined expression, this time carefully setting his hands down on top of Akira’s shoulders, finding to his relief that he wasn’t completely intangible: there was a small but noticeable pressure underneath his fingertips. If Ryuji had to compare it to anything, it was like resting his hands on top of the water’s surface in the bath or in a pool, a weak resistance that Ryuji could easily push through if he wanted to—which he absolutely did _not_ , once was freaky enough. “Akira, dude. Just—everything’s gonna be alright, so just try ‘n’ stay calm, okay? I’m sure everything’ll come back once you’re back in your body.”

Akira let out a quiet breath, feeling admittedly more relieved by the warmth seeping into him from Ryuji’s hands than by his words. He didn’t realize just how much he missed Ryuji’s friendly, casual touches until it became impossible for him to touch anything or anyone at all—the fact that Ryuji was here, physically standing in front of him, supporting him while he was at such an incredibly pathetic low (weak and scared and powerless, so unlike the fearless, unflappable leader that he tried to be for everyone, especially for _Ryuji_ who put him on such a high pedestal that he was terrified of showing weakness and disappointing him) meant more to Akira than he could ever properly express without voicing other feelings that he’d rather not bring into the equation.

Not now, at least. If he was going to risk ruining their friendship and making Ryuji uncomfortable with being around him, he was going to do it _after_ he was back in his body and not when Ryuji was literally his only physical tie to the outside world.

“ _Thank you,_ ” Akira murmured, giving Ryuji a genuine smile once he’d composed himself. “ _Sorry about that. I’m alright now, I promise._ ”

Ryuji searched his friend’s expression, making sure that he wasn’t still trying to hide anything, before straightening up with a grin of his own. “Good, I’m glad.”

Much to Akira’s disappointment, Ryuji moved his hands off of his shoulders and returned them to his sides as he continued to speak.

“So d’you have any ideas how to even get your body back in the first place?” A thought occurred to Ryuji, and he added, “And what about the others? Don’cha think I should tell them about all this?”

Akira sighed quietly. “ _I don’t have anything in mind in particular, but I do agree that we should let the others know about this. They might be able to come up with something that we haven’t thought of._ ” He frowned. “ _Just be careful, okay? Make sure that when you contact them, there’s no way for Joker to find out. Even if he has no ill intentions, I doubt he’ll be too happy to find out that we’re trying to take back my body from him._ ”

Ryuji grimaced. “Yeah, I know. I’ll be careful, promise. I can just set up a group chat with everyone so he can’t see it; the real problem is gonna be figuring out how to convince everyone that I’m not crazy.”

“ _Unfortunately that’s easier said than done,_ ” Akira responded wryly. “ _If anything, don’t mention anything about me right away—Ann’s house might be the easiest place to meet up that has a full-body mirror. Just convince them all to meet up at her place as soon as possible, and hopefully if you explain everything to them, they’ll actually notice me for more than a second in the mirror, and we can go from there._ ”

“Don’t worry! If I could notice you, then I’m sure everyone else will too.” Ryuji shot Akira a reassuring grin. “I’ll send out the text tonight, and hopefully everyone will be free to meet up tomorrow.”

Akira returned Ryuji’s grin with a small, grateful smile of his own. “ _Thank you, Ryuji. I don’t know what I’d do without you._ ”

Ryuji shrugged modestly, inwardly wishing he’d kept his mask on to cover up the heat that was beginning to gather in his face. “You don’t gotta thank me. You’re my best friend, there’s no way in hell I’d let some asshole steal your body and your identity from you.”

“ _I know, and I appreciate it,_ ” Akira replied, before sighing. “ _Anyway, you should probably get going before it gets too late. I don’t want to hold you up any longer than necessary._ ”

“Oh. Yeah, you’re probably right.” Ryuji made no move to head for the exit, instead sheepishly rubbing the back of his head as he added, “But, uh, what about you? How’d you even get here to begin with, anyway?”

Akira knew that going through the whole explanation would have made things more complicated than necessary—there was no need to confuse Ryuji with talk about the Velvet Room, especially not when he’d gone for so long without ever bringing up the subject to begin with—so he opted to cut that out entirely as he instead talked about the Void: an infinite expanse of darkness and silence, with the only reprieve being the windows into reality that he could look through, and how it was linked closely enough with the Metaverse that he was able to travel between the two places without the use of the Meta-Nav.

Ryuji repressed a shudder—to think that Akira had been trapped all by himself in a place like that for a whole _week_ , unable to do anything but go from reflective surface to reflective surface hoping that someone would realize he was even there….

“Hey, uh, not sure if it’ll help,” he said, “but we can still hang out? Like, even if you’re just looking through my phone or whatever, and even if you can’t talk back, I can still keep you company.” Ryuji rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish expression, his gaze dropping in embarrassment. “I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t wanna, I just figured it might be better than being alone? Though putting up with listening to me blabbering without being able to tell me to shut up might not be all that great—”

“ _Ryuji,_ ” Akira cut Ryuji off, waiting until he looked back up at him before giving him an encouraging smile. “ _You know that I always enjoy listening to you._ ” His expression softened as he added, “ _I honestly appreciate your offer, and if you really wouldn’t mind, I would be happy to spend the night with you._ ”

Honestly, Akira was relieved that Ryuji had offered—even if all he could do was watch and listen, at least he knew that someone was speaking to _him_ and acknowledging his existence.

Plus, it would be a welcome distraction from the anxious thoughts that were becoming more and more frequent the more time he spent by himself.

Inwardly pleased by Akira’s reassurances, Ryuji said, “Good. So I guess I’ll see you in a bit, then?”

“ _Yeah, see you in a bit._ ”

Guilt stirred in the pit of Ryuji’s stomach—this was the one place that Akira could properly talk with him, and even if it was getting late he should at least try and stay for a few more minutes—

“ _Ryuji,_ ” Akira began warningly, though there was warmth in his smile and gratefulness in his gaze, as if he could tell what Ryuji was thinking and why he was hesitating.

“Alright, alright, I’m going, sheesh.”

Akira watched him start to head for the exit, his expression softening as Ryuji glanced back at him one last time—as if it wasn’t obvious enough how reluctant he was to leave him—before disappearing from Mementos.

“... The Chariot is very dedicated to you, isn’t he.”

Akira jumped, startled, and blushed lightly as he glanced behind him.

Right, Justine was still there. Akira had been so focused on Ryuji that he’d genuinely forgotten that they weren’t actually alone, much to his embarrassment.

Before Justine could make any other comments, Akira speed-walked through the door, bypassing the Velvet Room entirely and going straight back to the Void where no one could make comments on how “dedicated” Ryuji was to him.

Akira didn’t need to think about those kinds of things right now, nor did he want to think about the feelings they evoked.

* * *

The train was crowded as always, yet for some reason, Ryuji felt more acutely aware of the presence of other people surrounding him than he normally would—perhaps it was Akira’s words lingering in the back of his mind, a constant reminder echoing in his head that Akira was trapped all alone, that made Ryuji suddenly all the more grateful for the idle chatter surrounding him and the normally annoying presence of so many other people pressed into the train car.

If Ryuji had to spend a week trapped by himself, with nothing else but his thoughts for company, he was pretty sure he’d go insane.

Speaking of insane, he had a feeling that the people around him were giving him weird looks as he kept obsessively checking his phone. He wasn’t even bothering to unlock it; he just continuously kept glancing at the screen hoping to catch a glimpse of Akira’s face, even if he knew that he wouldn’t actually be able to talk with Akira in public without appearing even more unhinged than people probably already thought he was.

Not to mention that he didn’t have any idea of how long it would even take for Akira to even appear—though that didn’t stop him from continuing to glance at his phone as he got off at his stop, walked down the street all the way to his apartment building, and went up the stairs to let himself into his apartment.

At which point he remembered that he had more to do tonight than to just stare at his phone waiting for Akira to appear.

He opened up the group chat and sent a message to let everyone know that he got home in one piece—and _yes_ Makoto, he was going to start working on his homework right now, he promised—before creating a new group chat with everyone except Joker.

< **hey, so uh... smth serious is going on**  
< **gonna need u guys to trust me on this**  
< **and don’t mention anything to akira**  
< **we have to meet up at ann’s house asap**  
< **(srry ann i promise ill buy u whatever snacks u want)**  
< **futaba get mona from akira and bring him with if u can**

Like Ryuji expected, the flood of texts that he received in response were wary at best and downright skeptical at worse, which was fair—Ryuji would react in kind if one of the Phantom Thieves made a chat without their leader and tried to organize a group meeting behind his back, except Ryuji had no answers that he could give to his friends that wouldn’t sound downright implausible.

He was so focused on reading the chat that he almost missed Akira’s face appearing on his screen, and he quickly locked his phone so he could see Akira better.

“Hey. Any chance you can see what’s on my phone from there?” When Akira shook his head with a regretful expression, Ryuji said, “Didn’t think so. I just texted everyone, and… well, like I figured, they’re asking questions. What should I say?”

Akira shrugged helplessly, reminding Ryuji that he couldn’t properly talk with him like this. Asking yes or no questions was a much easier way of communicating, and when Ryuji asked if he should try and explain everything over text, Akira shook his head.

Ryuji made his way into his bedroom and plopped himself down on his bed, staring up at his phone with a frown. It seemed his only option was to keep trying to convince them without saying too much, then.

It took a few more minutes of back and forth over texting, with Ryuji reading everything aloud for Akira’s benefit, but Ryuji finally managed to half-convince, half-bribe everyone to meet up at Ann’s house after school and to not say anything to “Akira,” with Futaba promising to wait around LeBlanc for a chance to steal Morgana before joining them later.

Ryuji and leaned his head back against his pillow, closing his eyes for a moment before reopening them to look at his phone with a grin.

“Alright, the hard part’s officially done—now all we gotta do is get through tomorrow, and we’re set!”

Akira knew that things weren’t that simple—there was always the chance that something could go wrong, or that they might not see him, or they might not believe Ryuji, or that Joker might somehow find out—yet looking at Ryuji’s bright smile made a small smile of his own work its way onto his face.

He didn’t consider himself an optimistic person, but Akira couldn’t help but feel like just this once, maybe things really _would_ turn out alright.


	4. Chapter 4

With two boxes of donuts in a bag in one hand and his phone in the other, Ryuji approached Ann’s house.

Everyone was waiting for him inside—he had received an impatient text from Ann already, which he replied to by reminding her that  _ someone _ had requested donuts as compensation for having everyone gather at her house, and of  _ course _ she’d wanted the expensive donuts from the fancy bakery too, god forbid he get something cheap like a pack of store-brand donuts or something. Yet as urgent as this whole matter was, Ryuji couldn’t help but stall outside.

Akira was counting on him, but what if he couldn’t convince everyone that Akira was trapped and needed their help, or that the “Akira” that they’d all been hanging out with and going to the Metaverse with was a fake?

He really didn’t want to think about what would happen to Akira then.

Nor did he want to think about any of them telling Joker what Ryuji had told them and Joker retaliating against Akira as a result, all because Ryuji wasn’t smart enough or eloquent enough or persuasive enough—

Ryuji happened to glance over at his phone, and was met with Akira watching him—a silent reminder, though from the reassuring smile on Akira’s face, Ryuji knew that he wasn’t pressuring him in any way.

He knew that no matter what the outcome was, Akira would never hold anything against him, and would be grateful for any and all help that Ryuji gave him.

Somehow, that just made the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach worse.

Ryuji exhaled slowly before returning Akira’s smile with a grin of his own. He was supposed to be the optimistic one here—Akira was stressed and scared and looking to him for help; Akira shouldn’t have to be the one reassuring Ryuji of anything. If he could see Akira, then everyone would be able to see him too. Steeling his nerves, Ryuji slipped his phone back into his pocket and made his way over to Ann’s front door, ringing the doorbell and waiting a whole half-second before it swung open to reveal Ann’s annoyed expression.

“Got you the donuts you wanted,” Ryuji said, shoving the bag into her arms before she could open her mouth. “One box just for you, and one box for everyone to share.”

Ann’s annoyance seemed to ebb slightly as she took out each box, examining the contents before finally smiling and nodding in satisfaction as she stepped aside to let Ryuji in.

“Everyone’s waiting in the living room,” she said, locking the door behind Ryuji before beginning to head inside. “You took so long that Futaba’s already here with Morgana.”

Ryuji huffed and gestured pointedly to the boxes in Ann’s hands. “C’mon, I got you your donuts, didn’t I? Had to go halfway across Tokyo to get ‘em, too, so cut me some slack, would’ja?”

“Fine, fine.” Ann waved him off flippantly, stopping off in the kitchen to drop off one of the boxes before leading Ryuji to the living room.

As soon as he stepped into the room, everyone turned to look at him at once, each of their gazes grilling him for answers that he wasn’t even entirely sure he  _ had _ at this point.

“Ryuji,” Makoto began, and her tone alone made Ryuji want to do an about-face and run for the hills, “now that you’ve joined us, would you care to explain what this is all about?”

“I, uh,” Ryuji said eloquently, before shaking his head slightly and trying again. “I needed to talk to you guys. About Akira.”

“That was kinda obvious,” Futaba said, swiping one of the donuts from the box as soon as Ann set it down on the coffee table. “You said it’s serious, but you didn’t say what’s exactly going on. It’s gotta involve Akira somehow, right? Otherwise he’d be here too.”

“That’s not Akira!” Ryuji said, getting to the point a bit more quickly than he’d meant to. “That’s—the person that we’ve been spending time with—it’s not Akira. Not the real Akira, I mean.”

An uneasy silence filled the room. Everyone exchanged confused and wary glances before Morgana spoke up, seemingly voicing everyone’s thoughts.

“What do you mean, not the real Akira?”

Ryuji ran a hand through his hair. “I know this sounds crazy, but, like,” he paused, trying to figure out the best way to explain it and letting out a frustrated groan when the words refused to come to him. “He’s a fake! He took the real Akira’s place and left him trapped somewhere.” 

Faced with perplexed stares, Ryuji decided to back up a bit and take a different approach—the approach he’d intended on starting off with before his mouth got ahead of him, as it unfortunately tended to do. 

“Haven’t you guys noticed anything weird recently? Like catching sight of Akira in random places, or feeling like you’re being watched?”

“Oh!” Haru raised a hand to cover her mouth, her eyes widening in realization. “There was a moment not too long ago, maybe a week ago at most. I saw an image of him in my mirror, and I got a bad feeling, but...”

“Wait, hold on. You, too?” Ann shifted her surprised gaze from Ryuji to Haru. “I swore I was going crazy. I kept seeing quick flashes of him in my bedroom mirror, and at the mall—”

“On my computer and on my phone screen,” Futaba murmured, shivering slightly. “You guys really saw him too?”

Yusuke’s brows furrowed. “I had assumed the glimpses of him I’d caught in nearby windows were my mind’s way of urging me to seek out further inspiration by spending more time with Akira, but to think you all had the same visions...”

“They weren’t visions,” Ryuji said with a frown. “It was really him. Akira’s been trying to get our attention so we could help him.”

“And how exactly do you know this?” Makoto asked skeptically.

“Well, ‘cause he told me.” Ryuji pulled his phone out of his pocket, and the tension that had settled between his shoulders noticeably lifted as he caught sight of Akira nodding encouragingly. He slipped his phone back into his pocket and turned his attention to Ann, asking, “You’ve got a mirror in your bedroom, right? Can we bring it out here?”

“How did you—?” Ann paused, a bewildered expression on her face, before nodding cautiously. “Yeah. It’s a bit heavy, but we can carry it out here.”

“C’mon. I’ll help you move it. ”

Ryuji followed Ann out of the living room, feeling too anxious to even bother looking around or making any joking comments about being in a girl’s bedroom as they retrieved the mirror.

“Is this the part where we go, ‘ _ Mirror, mirror, on the wall? _ ’” Futaba began upon their return, only to devolve into snickering at the annoyed look Ryuji shot her.

“No, this is the part where you look at the mirror and stop thinking I’m crazy long enough to notice Akira,” Ryuji said. He glanced over at the mirror and noted that Akira was already there and waiting, watching with an anxious expression that didn’t belong on the face of his ordinarily composed friend. “You guys can’t tell me you don’t see—”

“I see him!”

Morgana was the first to rush over to the mirror, and Akira nearly collapsed in relief, instead carefully lowering himself to his knees so Morgana could have an easier time looking up at him as he put a paw against the mirror, obviously bewildered.

Ann paused, hesitating as she eyed the mirror and took in the faint sight of Akira being reflected back at her, growing more visible the more she forced herself to acknowledge that it wasn’t just her eyes playing tricks on her. “I think… I think I see him, too.”

This seemed to break the ice amongst the rest of the Phantom Thieves as they all began to warily murmur their agreement, much to Ryuji’s relief.

“See?” Ryuji crossed his arms over his chest. “Told ya I wasn’t crazy.”

“Ryuji, we never said you were  _ crazy _ , just—it’s not exactly an easy thing to accept,” Makoto said.

“So Akira’s really trapped in there?” Futaba asked, nervously approaching the mirror and poking it before retracting her hand with haste, as if afraid the mirror would open up and pull her in.

Akira nodded in response as he rose back up to his feet, catching everyone in the room—save for Ryuji—off guard.

“Wait, Akira, you can still hear us like that?” Morgana asked, and again, Akira responded with a nod

“Now, how exactly did you say you learned of Akira’s predicament, Ryuji?”

At Yusuke’s question, all eyes in the room turned to Ryuji, who flinched under their collective gazes.

_ Get a grip, Ryuji. Akira’s counting on you. _

Ryuji forcibly composed himself, trying to appear more self-assured than he really felt as he explained the situation: starting from when he’d caught sight of Akira and stopped to actually look at him instead of brushing him off, to the struggle to communicate with him through the mirror without being able to hear him, before ending with meeting with him in the Metaverse and explaining about the Void and how it was connected to the Metaverse enough that Akira could travel between the two, and how he could at least properly speak with him—and the rest of them—there.

“Ryuji,” Makoto began cautiously, once Ryuji finished speaking, “I hate to be the one to ask this, but do you have any proof that this is really even Akira?”

Ryuji bristled at the veiled accusation, especially as he caught Akira’s slight wince out of the corner of his eye. “What’re you trying to say?”

Makoto frowned, her expression remaining calm in contrast to Ryuji’s rising irritation. “What I’m ‘trying to say’ is that you’ve potentially been speaking with someone—or some _ thing _ —that has convinced you that he’s Akira, and is trying to turn all of us against our leader and our friend. Without any proof, how are we supposed to know for sure that anything he’s told you is true?”

“ _ Proof? _ How the hell is he supposed to  _ prove _ anything when he can’t even talk to us properly?” Ryuji just barely managed to keep his feet rooted to the ground and his fists at his sides. “Isn’t the fact that he’s been trying to contact all of us proof enough?”

“Unfortunately, no, it isn’t,” Makoto said coolly, though her front seemed to crack a bit as she glanced at Akira’s expression—distressed and upset in a way that she’d never seen, yet clearly trying to hide it and stay composed. “We have to put the safety of our team first and foremost, Ryuji. We can’t just blindly believe whatever we’re told.” Her gaze remained on Akira. ”Not without proof to back up his claims.”

“Why don’t we go to the Metaverse?” Ann said tentatively, speaking up before Ryuji could get another word out. “It’s not exactly fair to talk about Akira—I mean, if it  _ is _ Akira—like this without giving him the chance to defend himself. If he can meet us there, then we can hear him out, right?”

Ryuji let out an aggravated breath, forcing himself to back down. He knew Ann was right, and that going back and forth over this was getting them no closer to helping Akira. “Yeah. Let’s go to Mementos.”

When he glanced over at the mirror, Ryuji saw that Akira had already vanished. 

* * *

Akira laughed humorlessly as he sat on the ground, his head in his hands.

He’d been so relieved by Ryuji acknowledging him and believing him, so uplifted by Ryuji’s blind optimism and determination, that he’d genuinely forgotten about what had initially been his biggest fear:

Everyone thinking that he was the fake.

Makoto had asked him for proof, and he honestly had none. He couldn’t even prove to  _ himself _ that he was the real Akira, let alone prove it to someone else, and that thought alone made it harder and harder to cling onto the remains of his identity. Although he had no doubts that Ryuji would fight to defend him until the end of time, if everyone somehow managed to convince Ryuji that he’d been tricking him...

His stomach churned. He had to get to Mementos,  _ now _ .

Akira shakily forced himself up to his feet. Now that he’d grown accustomed to moving around the Void, it took hardly no time at all for him to make his way into Mementos—and wasn’t  _ that _ a pleasant thought, that he was actually getting used to this? 

The low thrum of the pulsing Mementos walls and the whispers on the wind should have helped ground him and pull him out of his head, yet all it did was make his anxiety grow the longer he stood surrounded by the oppressive air of the Metaverse.

He had to keep reminding himself that it was going to take everyone a lot longer to make their way to the station than it took him.

It wasn’t because they weren’t coming.

It wasn’t because they’d convinced Ryuji that Akira had been lying to him.

It  _ wasn’t _ —

As the group slowly materialized through the entrance of Mementos, one by one, Akira couldn’t help but let out a quiet, relieved breath before quickly plastering on a small smile as Ryuji immediately made a beeline towards him.

“ _ Hey _ ,” Akira said as the rest of the group trailed behind Ryuji, their expressions ranging from surprise to concern to wariness. Akira tried not to let the last part get to him.

“Dude,” Ryuji said, “is it just me or do you look less… I dunno, see-through or something?”

Blinking, Akira glanced down at himself, noting that Ryuji was right: while he’d been completely translucent before, he now seemed to have slightly more substance to his frame. He could still see through his hand, but it was a lot hazier than the last time he’d entered Mementos.

That had to be a good sign, right?

“It might have something to do with our cognitions,” Morgana said, eyeing Akira curiously. “He could be appearing more clearly because there are more people acknowledging his existence now than when Skull met with him.”

“ _ Makes about as much sense as anything else, _ ” Akira replied with a quick shrug. “ _ I’m just grateful you guys can see and hear me now. _ ”

“Yes, and now that we can properly speak with you,” Makoto began, taking a step forward with a serious expression, “we would like to hear an explanation for what’s going on. Do you have any proof that you’re really Akira, like you claim to be?”

Ryuji bristled once more, but Akira lightly rested his hand on top of Ryuji’s shoulder—more for show than anything, since he couldn’t actually grab Ryuji or stop him from moving—before giving Makoto a small, understanding smile.

“ _ Skull, it’s okay—she’s looking out for everyone’s safety, and I appreciate it. _ ” Akira’s smile faltered slightly as he continued. “ _ It’s not exactly the greatest feeling to be doubted by my friends, but I can understand how this whole scenario feels suspicious, and you were right that I have no way of proving that I’m the real Akira. Everything that I know, that imposter knows as well _ .”

Makoto eyed Akira, taking in everything from his words to his expression and posture, before finally giving a small nod. While it wasn’t anything significant, it was enough to let Akira relax just the slightest bit as he dropped his hand off of Ryuji’s shoulder and began recounting everything from the very beginning, starting with his first encounter with his doppelganger in the mirror. He omitted the part about traveling through the Velvet Room and speaking with Igor and the twins for simplicity’s sake, as there was no sense in trying to explain that on top of everything. By the time he finished speaking, his gaze had dropped to the floor, and he didn’t dare look up—not when there was an almost deafening silence in the wake of his long-winded explanation. Instead, he inhaled shakily and bowed deeply to his friends, his eyes squeezed shut.

“ _ I’m sorry. I know this was all my fault, and I know I have no right to ask for help when I can’t even prove that anything I’m telling you is true, but I can’t fix this on my own. I promise I’ll do everything I can to make it up to all of you, just please … please help me get my body back. _ ”

After a moment filled with exchanged glances and hushed murmurs, Makoto stepped forward, her pensive frown softening slightly as she spoke. “I admit, everything makes too much sense for it to be a trick.” When Akira looked up at her in surprise, she offered him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry for being so harsh with you, even if you understand why I had to do it.”

Akira straightened up and shook his head slightly. “ _ It’s nothing you have to apologize for. All of this started because of my own weakness— _ ”

“Dude, c’mon,” Ryuji said with a frown. “If you’re gonna be like that, then you could just as easily say it was our fault for dumping so much on you and not noticing how stressed you were.”

Akira frowned. “ _ There’s no way you could have known, and I would never have expected you to. I never said anything, and none of you are mind readers. _ ”

Ryuji scowled. “Don’t matter. We still should’ve noticed—  _ I _ still should’ve—”

“Alright, both of you, that’s enough.” Ann hit Ryuji lightly over the head. “Pointing fingers and blaming yourselves isn’t going to fix anything.”

Ryuji huffed as he rubbed his head. “Fine, fine. So what do we do now? Akira and I couldn’t really think of anything on our own.”

The air was thick with nervous tension as the group fell quiet, glancing at one another with uneasy expressions as they tried to think of some sort of solution to what felt like an insurmountable problem.

“I suppose it isn’t something as simple as confronting the doppelganger,” Yusuke mused slowly, the first to break the silence. “Perhaps we should start by figuring out how one reclaims a body?”

“What about through a mirror?” Haru suggested. “If that’s how Akira’s body was taken, then would it work in reverse somehow?”

Akira’s brows furrowed. “ _ It’s not a bad idea, but it’s going to be hard to get him by a mirror long enough for me to even try anything—not that I even have the first idea how he switched us to begin with. _ ”

“Oracle, do you think—?” Makoto stopped speaking as she glanced over at Futaba, who already had her screens pulled up in front of her.

“Already on it,” Futaba said distractedly, running a quick scan of Akira and pouring her focus into searching for some sort of solution, her fingers flying across the holographic keyboard in front of her.

“ _ Thank you, _ ” Akira said, feeling almost overwhelmed with relief—everyone really believed him. They were really acknowledging his existence and racking their brains trying to come up with a way to help him reclaim his body and his life.

Ryuji grinned and rested his hand on Akira’s shoulder, giving it a careful squeeze, and was pleased to find that it was slightly more tangible than the last time he’d tried to grab him.

“Like I told ya before, we wouldn’t just abandon you.”

Akira reached out and put his hand over Ryuji’s with a smile, but the moment was quickly interrupted by a groan from Futaba, who swiped her screens away in obvious frustration. “I can’t find anything!”

“Nothing at all?” Ann asked with a bewildered expression.

“Everything I’m finding on the internet is just stupid occult stuff, and even a scan of Mementos for any Shadows with body-stealing abilities or whatever turned up nothing.” Futaba frowned. “If this thing didn’t come from the Metaverse, then where did it come from?”

“ _ The Void, _ ” Akira said. “ _ It’s outside the Metaverse, soit probably came from there. I think it’s impossible to reach unless you lack a body. From what I understand, most people that this happens to just end up being stuck there until they lose their entire identity themselves, so that might explain why you can’t find anything about it. _ ”

“Do you mean to say that if you don’t reclaim your body, you will lose your identity as well?” Yusuke asked.

“ _ Let’s just hope it doesn’t get to that point _ ,” Akira replied with a weak smile.

Ryuji frowned. “We’ll figure something out before that happens.”

“Like what?” Ann asked. “We don’t even know where to start.”

“Then let’s treat this like a change of heart.”

Everyone turned their attention over to Morgana, who wore a pensive expression.

“This doppelganger, Joker… it wouldn’t be too farfetched to say that he’s like another cognition, right? Almost like Akira’s Shadow.”

“I suppose,” Makoto said hesitantly. “Then are you saying that we should fight Joker?”

Morgana nodded. “Since he’s more or less a cognition that attached himself to Akira and took  Akira’s place in the real world, then in theory, once we beat him, Akira should be able to return to his body where he belongs.”

“But fighting Joker?” Ann absentmindedly toyed with one of her pigtails. “Isn’t there any other way?”

“I admit, I’m not too pleased with the idea of having to fight Joker either,” Haru said.

Yusuke frowned. “Nor I, but if there really isn’t any other option …”

Ryuji scowled. “There’s no way we’re fighting him. That’s still Akira’s body. There’s gotta be something else we can do.”

“ _ I think that’s our best option. _ ”

Everyone looked over at Akira in surprise when he spoke, and he let out a quiet sigh in response, running a hand through his hair.

“ _ Mona’s idea is the only thing we have to go on right now. The worst that will happen is that you’ll rough up my body, but you can just as easily heal me, and then we’ll have to go back to the drawing board. _ ”

“And what if this doesn’t work and Joker tries to do something to you?” Ryuji challenged.

Akira’s composed facade cracked a bit as he briefly grimaced. “ _ We’ll worry about that when and if the time comes. For now, we have to try and focus on one thing at a time. _ ” His grimace faded into a troubled frown as he added, “ _ Honestly, my main concern about all of this is the idea of Joker fighting you all, and not the other way around. _ ”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ryuji asked, seemingly a cross of between offended and bewildered, which reflected in the expressions worn by the rest of the team. “What, you’re saying we can’t take you six on one, or something?”

Akira took a moment to process Ryuji’s words and everyone’s expressions before flushing in embarrassment, lifting his hands in protest. “ _ That’s not how I meant it at all, I swear! I just meant that I have a lot of different Personas with different strengths and weaknesses, and if Joker figured out how to get different Personas, then not even I can help you anticipate what he’ll be bringing out to fight you guys with—and not only that, but he probably knows about weaknesses and knock downs and stuff too, since he has my memories, and he might be able to use all of that in his favor. _ ”

“That’s a good point,” Makoto conceded reluctantly.

“I might not be able to scan him when we’re running around Mementos, but if we take on a request and fight a Shadow before we fight him, then I should be able to scan him and see what Personas he has without him noticing,” Futaba said. “That should give us an edge.”

“ _ Provided the Personas he has are ones that you’ve already scanned before, otherwise you won’t be able to get data on them until he uses them, _ ” Akira said. “ _ Which might end up being too late. _ ”

“How do you get all of those new Personas, anyway?” Ann asked. “The doppelganger—Joker, whatever—has all of your memories, but you said he only might have figured out how to get new Personas. Why’s that?”

Akira hesitated, absentmindedly toying with his bangs as he chose his words carefully. “ _ I can’t really explain it, but I guess you could say I’m connected to the Metaverse in a different way than you all. It’s just a matter of whether or not he figured out how to make that connection work in his favor. _ ”

Yusuke crossed his arms, his expression calm in contrast to the troubled ones of his teammates. “There’s no sense in dwelling on what-ifs. I’m personally still not pleased with the idea of fighting Joker, but if it’s our best option, then we may as well see it through to the end.”

“I’m sure everything’ll work out fine,” Futaba added with forced cheer. “We always manage to figure things out in the end, right?”

“Of course! The Phantom Thieves won’t fail, especially not for something this important,” Morgana said. “We’ll put the operation into works tomorrow, since I’m sure it’ll take some time to gather info on more Mementos requests; but once we’ve got one, we can use it to bring Joker to Mementos and corner him. We’ll talk him down first, and if he doesn’t give Akira back his body peacefully, then we’ll fight. Sound good, everyone?”

Though reluctant, everyone voiced their agreement for the plan, until only Ryuji was left with a conflicted expression on his face.

“ _ Skull, _ ” Akira said softly, lightly putting his hand over Ryuji’s arm.

Ryuji let out a frustrated groan before throwing his arms up in defeat. “Fine! Fine, we’ll do it, but I ain’t happy about it!”

Akira’s expression softened into a small, apologetic smile. “ _ Thank you. _ ”

Morgana nodded in approval. “Then it’s unanimous: our next target is the creature that took Akira’s body. Let’s head back out, and we can keep using the separate group chat to coordinate the plan. I’ll monitor Joker and make sure he doesn’t get suspicious of us, and I’ll report anything to Oracle to pass on to you all. Skull, you’re in charge of keeping Akira updated, since you were the first one who was able to speak with him. Does that sound good?”

This time, everyone replied with more assurance than before, and the group began making their way back to the Mementos entrance with only Ryuji lingering behind.

“So, uh… that went alright, I guess?”

Akira laughed quietly. “ _ Overall it could have been worse, so I’m grateful. _ ”

“That’s true.” Ryuji cracked a brief smile, before his expression fell guiltily. “I, uh… sorry I couldn’t do more to, like… stand up for you ‘n’ stuff. I really wasn’t expecting anyone to give you the third degree like that.”

Akira shrugged. “ _ It was justified, and part of me did expect it, even if I wasn’t braced for it. _ ” Though he couldn’t properly grip Ryuji’s shoulder, he carefully put his hand down on top of it and gave Ryuji a reassuring smile as he added, “ _ You did more than I could have ever asked of you, though, so thank you. _ ”

Ryuji shifted slightly in embarrassment. “I really didn’t do much, though,” he mumbled, before raising his voice as he changed the subject. “Anyways, you gonna come hang out again tonight?”

“ _ As long as I’m not imposing. _ ”

Ryuji rolled his eyes in amusement. “C’mon dude, y’know you’re never imposing.”

Akira gave Ryuji a small, grateful smile. “ _ If you’re sure… then I would appreciate the company, thank you. _ ”

Ryuji grinned in return. “Guess I’ll see you in a bit, then?”

“ _ See you in a bit. _ ”

* * *

The exhaustion from the day’s tension didn’t fully hit Ryuji until he was finally back home and in his bedroom, plopping himself down on his bed with a drawn-out sigh.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, hoping to catch sight of Akira’s face in the reflection on his screen and giving his friend a smile when he spotted him. “Hey, you doing alright?”

Akira nodded, returning Ryuji’s smile with a small smile of his own.

(If he could properly speak with Ryuji, he would say that he was doing a lot better now that Ryuji was talking to him. Better than he had been in the interim of hearing the eerie whispering in Mementos, the silence in the Void, and the faint outside noises as he sat near the small mirror that let him look out through the Ryuji’s phone screen, pathetically waiting until Ryuji could affirm that he still existed.)

“Awesome,” Ryuji responded, oblivious to his friend’s thoughts. “I picked up a few new manga on the way home. Figured we could read them together. That good with you?”

Akira’s smile widened the slightest bit as he nodded. If it had been with anyone else, Akira would have dreaded sitting in silence with them as they read, but Ryuji was the kind of person who couldn’t keep quiet even while reading, enthusiastically pointing out parts that he liked or talking about what he thought would happen next. Most people found it annoying. Akira found it hopelessly charming, just like every other part of Ryuji—and right now, he also found it to be a blessing, if only because of the assurance that Ryuji would continuously be talking to him.

It took a bit of maneuvering before Ryuji found a position that was comfortable for him and allowed Akira to read alongside him, but he finally settled onto his back, his phone propped up on his pillow beside his face. “You good like that?” he asked as he cracked open the first volume and held it up to read. “Can you see it?”

Immediately, Akira noticed one glaring flaw in Ryuji’s brilliant plan: being stuck looking through a mirror meant everything was flipped, and just as Ryuji couldn’t read anything he’d written on his side without using another mirror to flip the text, Akira was stuck looking at pages of mirrored pictures and text that he could barely decipher. Still, he gave Ryuji a nod, amusement bubbling up in his throat in the form of quiet laughter as soon as Ryuji looked away.

It was such a relief to be laughing after the tension and stress and fear eating away at him all day, so much so that he couldn’t even bring himself to mind his inability to read alongside Ryuji. Instead, he settled down in front of the mirror, pretending for a moment that he was lying down next to Ryuji on his bed, feeling the comforting warmth of his best friend’s body next to him as they poured over page after page together. He could almost imagine the gentle press of Ryuji’s chin resting on his shoulder, shifting closer to point to one panel excitedly.  

Suddenly Akira was grateful that it was difficult to properly see his face on the screen, otherwise Ryuji might have noticed the blush heating  Akira’s face when he peeked at the phone to make sure Akira was alright and paying attention.

Thankfully Ryuji was easily placated with a smile and a nod, and this time Akira forced himself to focus on Ryuji’s words instead of his own daydreaming. No sense in wasting this time alone with Ryuji imagining things that would never happen. It was better to just enjoy the moment, listening to the excitement in Ryuji’s voice and catching glimpses of his face as he occasionally shifted and looked over at Akira to see his reactions. inadvertently pushing away Akira’s own lingering fears each time their eyes met.

Akira would find a way to make all of this up to Ryuji one day, and to express his gratitude for everything Ryuji had done for him since their very first meeting—but for now,  Akira let his doubts become eclipsed by the sound of his best friend’s voice as he tried to piece together what was happening in the mirrored manga in front of him.


	5. Chapter 5

From the very first day that Joker began his life as “Akira,” he knew that Ryuji was important.

Ryuji had approached him on his first day of school as “Akira” with a bright grin and a friendly arm swung over his shoulder, and Akira’s body had reacted instantly, a foreign yet not entirely unpleasant feeling of comfort and relaxation washing over him that seemed almost contradictory to the racing of his heart.

Joker would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy the closeness that Akira and Ryuji shared, if only because it was something he hadn’t experienced himself for a long time, if ever—which made him all the more conscious of Ryuji suddenly beginning to distance himself. It was a subtle change, one that no one else even seemed to notice, yet Joker was acutely aware of how Ryuji began standing just a bit farther than him from usual, giving him smiles that lacked their normal warmth, refraining from coming into contact with him unless absolutely necessary….

He really didn’t want to assume the worst, yet the more days it went on for, the more Joker was beginning to suspect the reason for Ryuji’s odd behavior.

Deciding to put his theory to the test, Joker approached Ryuji—still loyally waiting by the staircase as always, regardless of his clear reluctance to be around him—after class one day. He gave him a smile as he said, “Why don’t we take the afternoon off and go to the arcade? It’s been a while since we’ve gone.”

Ryuji looked caught off-guard by the invitation, and he warily replied, “Don’t we still gotta finish up the palace? The deadline’s approaching pretty soon….”

“We still have time, and we’re almost to the treasure—one day off won’t hurt.”

Ryuji frowned, seeming to mull over Joker’s words as he ran a hand through his hair before eventually letting out a quiet breath. “Well, when you put it like that… yeah, I guess one day won’t hurt.” He forced a brighter expression as he began heading for the stairs, waving for Joker to follow him. “Let’s go; we can text everyone to let them know we’re not doing the palace today on the way there.”

Joker followed after Ryuji, observing the tension in his frame and the lack of warmth in his smile with a pensive gaze.

It would be nice if he was just overthinking things, but if he wasn’t….

Then that just meant this was the calm before the inevitable storm.

* * *

It was easy to forget that Joker wasn’t really Akira when he and Ryuji were standing side by side in the arcade playing video games together, moving from one game to the next like kids in a candy shop—everything felt so familiar that Ryuji found himself genuinely smiling and laughing along with Joker without realizing, only catching himself when the feeling of his phone vibrating in his pocket made him remember that he hadn’t once thought to check on Akira in the entire time he’d spent at the arcade.

His heart dropped, and he inwardly kicked himself for letting himself get sucked into Joker’s deception so easily as he pulled out his phone, unsure of whether or not to feel relieved when he saw no sign of Akira’s face in the screen’s reflection.

After unlocking his phone and seeing that the vibrations had just been a few new texts in the group chat, he slipped his phone back into his pocket before finally becoming aware of Joker watching him.

“What’s up?” Ryuji asked, unable to help the slight hint of defensiveness that slipped into his tone.

Joker continued to observe him for a moment longer before shaking his head and smiling slightly. He picked up one of the plastic gun controllers and gestured to the game in front of them. “Gun About?”

Forcing a grin, Ryuji picked up the other controller as he took his spot in front of the screen, keeping a careful distance from Joker without being obvious about it so he wouldn't get pulled into his facade of friendliness again. “You’re on!”

The game’s music and gunshots blaring from the machine's speakers mixed with the noise from the other games around them, creating a cacophony of sound that Ryuji was all-too used to from his constant loitering in the arcade. It was easy to drown all the noise out and focus on the screen in front of him—so easy, in fact, that he almost didn’t catch the words that Joker said as he broke the silence between them.

“Did I do something to upset you?”

Caught off-guard by the random question, Ryuji missed a shot as he turned to look at Joker, finding that he was still calmly focusing on the screen and taking down all the targets with practiced ease. It was only when he felt the vibration of the controller in his hand that he remembered that he was still playing as well, and he cursed under his breath as he narrowly ducked out of the way of a shot with only one health bar to spare.

As if able to tell that Ryuji had no response to give—or that he was unwilling to give one—Joker continued to speak without moving his gaze from the screen in front of them.

“I’ve noticed recently that you’ve been avoiding me—not enough for anyone else to pick up on it, and if I’m overthinking things then please feel free to correct me, but… it seems like over this past week or so, you’ve been going out of your way to avoid being around me in any capacity—you refuse to sit or stand next to me when we gather as a group, you've used excuses to get out of spending time with me the few times I've offered these past few days, and even now you're standing farther from me than necessary.”

Ryuji grimaced as he lost the last bit of his health, the “GAME OVER” on his half of the screen declaring that he had no other excuses left to avoid responding to Joker—but honestly, what could he possibly say? He thought he’d been doing a good job of avoiding Joker without being obvious about it, yet the one person he hadn’t wanted to notice was the one person that apparently had immediately picked up on his change in behavior.

Which raised another question: why was Joker bothering to ask him about this, anyway? Wasn’t he just some sort of evil spirit-person-thing using Akira’s body? Ryuji had assumed that was the case, and he still wanted to think so—yet the expression on Joker’s face as he set his own controller down, letting his lives run out so he could give Ryuji his full attention, seemed almost unsettlingly genuine, like he was actually upset by the thought of Ryuji putting distance between them.

Like he actually thought of Ryuji as a  _ friend _ , and not just another person to deceive in his attempts to take over Akira’s life.

_ Don’t be fooled, this is all just an act—it’s gotta be a trick, or a test, or… or something. _

Despite how he tried to reassure himself, he couldn’t help the slight pang of guilt that rushed through him as he forced a grin and clapped Joker on the shoulder. “You’re overthinking things as usual, dude. Maybe it’s just the stress from the palace talking.”

Joker continued to observe Ryuji, humming noncommittally but offering no verbal response nor any sort of sign that he’d believed Ryuji’s lie, which made Ryuji’s stomach continue to turn nervously.

God, what if he’d somehow fucked everything up, what if he’d somehow put Akira in danger just because he hadn’t been able to properly fool Joker—

Joker suddenly pulling his phone out of his pocket forced Ryuji’s attention away from his own thoughts, and he watched as Joker read over a text message before sighing and pocketing his phone once more.

“Sojiro needs me to look after the shop for him, so I should probably head out now. Sorry for cutting things short.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it!” Ryuji waved off his apology, inwardly feeling relieved—his gut was screaming at him to get away before things got bad and he fucked up any more than he already did, and this was the perfect opportunity to put as much distance between himself and Joker as possible so he could take a minute to breathe and make sure Akira was still alright.

Joker gave Ryuji a small smile and nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

Ryuji watched Joker turn towards the door, and just as he was about to let out a relieved sigh, Joker suddenly stopped and turned back to face him.

“No matter what you think of me, I do genuinely want to be your friend. I just hope you can find it in you to accept that someday.”

Joker didn’t give Ryuji a chance to respond, nor did he bother waiting to see if he would—Joker merely turned back around once he said his peace and exited the arcade, leaving Ryuji to stare at the spot he’d been standing in with a mix of wariness and dread.

Was he reading too much into it? Did Joker just admit that he knew that Ryuji knew that he wasn’t Akira? Was Joker saying that Akira was guaranteed to disappear and that there was no way to get him back into his body, so Ryuji should just give up and accept that Joker was the new “Akira” whether he liked it or not?

The more Ryuji thought about it, the more confused and unsettled he grew—he couldn’t tell whether Joker’s statement was genuine, or if it was supposed to be a warning or a threat of some kind, but regardless Ryuji knew that he absolutely could  _ not _ tell Akira about this.

Akira was already stressed and panicking enough as it was without adding in the potential danger of Joker having figured them out.

_ I’m sure I’m just overthinking things. Even if Joker knows that I know that he’s not Akira, that doesn’t mean that he figured out that we’ve got a plan to get Akira back into his body. Everything’ll be fine. _

Ryuji knew it was a feeble reassurance at best, but with so little to go off of, all he could do was cling onto whatever bits of optimism he could dredge up as he forcefully composed himself, gathered his things, and left the arcade.

Even if Joker was planning something, Ryuji would do everything in his power to protect Akira and get him back into his body safe and sound.

* * *

“ _ Mementos. Talk. Now. _ ”

Ryuji made out those three words along with the urgency in Akira’s expression, prompting him to quickly pull on his shoes and jacket, grab his keys, and rush to the train station.

Ryuji couldn’t blame Akira for getting a bit frantic: it had already been three days since the group agreed on their plan (and two days since his nerve-wracking talk with Joker), yet Futaba still hadn’t managed to dig up any information on a request that would be enough for them to convince Joker to go to Mementos—and the more time passed, the more Akira’s identity slowly dwindled away.

The desperation of the situation hadn’t fully sunk in, however, until he came face to face with Akira.

Mementos had a thick, stifling air filled with tension and negativity on any given day, yet it felt almost suffocating at the moment as Ryuji made his way towards Akira—and he hadn’t thought it would be possible for a transparent person’s skin to look pale, yet Akira’s face was clearly white as a ghost, his eyes wide as they met Ryuji’s gaze.

“ _ Ryuji, _ ” Akira began without preamble, his voice catching as he tried and failed to keep his body from trembling, “ _ what—what’s Futaba’s dad’s name? _ ”

Ryuji was at first relieved that Akira hadn’t called him here because Joker had done something to him (and he knew he should tell Akira that Joker was getting suspicious, he  _ knew _ , but then that would mean admitting that he fucked up somehow and blew everything and then Akira would blame him and stop trusting him and—), but as soon as the meaning behind Akira’s words sunk in, his expression immediately fell in dread. “You seriously… can’t remember?”

“ _ I can’t remember his name. I can barely remember his face. Ryuji, I can’t remember my teacher’s name. I can’t remember the doctor’s name, the gun shop owner’s name, all of the people I've gotten close with this year,  _ **_I can’t remember their names_ ** _ — _ ”

“Akira,  _ breathe _ .” This time, Ryuji knew not to use too much force as he grabbed Akira’s shoulders, trying to help ground his friend without accidentally scaring him further. “It’s okay. Everything’s… everything’s gonna be alright. Futaba’s dad is Sojiro, and your teacher’s Kawakami; the shop owner’s name is Iwai and the doctor’s Takemi. I'm not sure who else you're having trouble remembering, but regardless, I’m sure everything’ll come back once we get you back in your body. Don’t let this get to you, alright?”

Akira took a few shaky breaths before tentatively nodding. “ _ Right, okay—those names sound familiar, yeah. Sorry, I just… I panicked, but I think I’m alright now. _ ”

“Dude, you don’t gotta apologize. I think anyone would be panicking right about now if they were in your shoes.” Ryuji gave Akira a weak smile that quickly died down as he asked, “But, uh, do you—I mean, you still remember all of us, right?”

Akira closed his eyes briefly, as if to picture all of their faces as he recited their names. “ _ Morgana, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, and Haru. _ ” He opened his eyes with a small, wry smile as he added, “ _ Thankfully I'm not that far gone yet. _ ”

Ryuji sighed in relief. “Good. That's good.” Warily, he added, “Stupid question, but… y’don’t have any trouble remembering  _ my _ name, right?”

Akira’s expression softened affectionately. “ _ Even if I forgot my own name, I would never forget yours. _ ”

“That's—thanks?” Ryuji felt his face heating up slightly in embarrassment, but he ignored it in favor of giving Akira’s shoulders a careful, reassuring squeeze. “I won't let it get to that point, though. As soon as I head outta here, I’m gonna text Futaba that she’s gotta get a move on finding something.”

Guilt immediately replaced the previous mirth in Akira’s eyes. “ _You don’t have to rush her_ ,” he said, dropping his gaze. “ _I know she’s doing her best._ ”

“Akira, listen to me.” Ryuji moved his hands from Akira’s shoulders to his face, carefully easing his face up so their eyes could meet. “This is important.  _ You’re _ important. You really think any of our friends are gonna want you to hide this from them?”

“ _ I guess not, _ ” Akira reluctantly conceded. “ _ I’ve hid too much from them already. _ ”

“I’m glad you talked to me about this instead of pretending to be okay. We can’t help you if you keep hiding shit.” Ryuji gave Akira a reassuring smile. “Futaba’ll find something soon, and we’ll get you back in your body in no time. I promise.”

Akira took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before giving Ryuji a tentative smile in return. “ _ Alright. Thank you. _ ”

“Anytime, dude. Y’know I’d do anything to help you out.”

Akira couldn’t help the way his smile softened slightly at that, his cheeks filling with color and the tension easing from his frame as he reached up to lightly put one hand on top of Ryuji’s. “ _ I know, and I appreciate it more than I could ever say. _ ”

Ryuji belatedly realized that he was still essentially cradling Akira’s face in his hands, and he quickly withdrew them, his face flushing in embarrassment that only grew as he heard Akira quietly laughing.

“Yeah, well, uh, I—I’ve gotta head back out before my ma gets home and sees that I’m gone,” Ryuji said hastily, “so, see you later?”

“ _ See you later. _ ”

With the image of Akira’s soft smile and slightly flushed cheeks burned into his mind, Ryuji hastily retreated from Mementos, pushing his chagrin aside in favor of pulling out his phone and typing up a message to their friends.

< **so, about that mementos request**   
< **might wanna put a rush on that**   
< **akira’s getting worse**   
< **if we’re gonna do this, we’ve gotta do it now**

His fingers hovered over the keyboard on his phone as he forced himself to type out one last statement, something he wished he didn’t have to admit.

< **otherwise there might not be anything left of akira to save**

* * *

As Ryuji had hoped, Futaba worked double-time to dig up a request and its necessary information as soon as she read the group chat. She anonymously forwarded everything to Mishima, who then passed the details along to Joker, who brought it up with the group for their approval.

If Joker had noticed their hasty agreement, he didn’t say anything, nor did he seem to be aware of the group’s plan as he willingly took the trip into Mementos with them. He even engaged in casual conversation with Haru and Ann as they made their way toward the Monabus, completely oblivious to Ryuji and Yusuke sneaking Akira’s transparent form into the backseat.

Akira squeezed himself down to sit on the floor and out of sight—which wasn’t exactly comfortable, especially as Ryuji and Yusuke squeezed themselves into the backseat and tried to give Akira room without making it obvious that there was another person there, but at this point he was just grateful that he was even solid enough to sit in the Monabus without phasing through it.

In what felt like both an eternity and an instant, they arrived in the small pocket of Mementos where the request subject’s Shadow Self was located, and Akira quickly snuck out of the bus after Yusuke and Ryuji, ducking out of sight behind them and slipping off to hide behind one of the pulsing walls of the closed-off space. He held his breath as Joker glanced around, swearing for a moment that the doppelganger was turning to look in his direction—but thankfully Ryuji was one step ahead, blocking his line of sight as he moved forward and clapped Joker on the shoulder with his free hand, his other hand clenching his pipe just a bit harder than necessary as he gave Joker a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“C’mon, let’s do this.”

Akira let out a quiet sigh as the group moved away from his hiding spot and toward the Shadow, and he silently observed as they spoke with them, trying to reason with them before—as always—the Shadow changed forms and attacked.

As soon as Joker called forth his Persona, Akira knew that they were in trouble.

Akira knew it was his own fault—he’d been avoiding the Velvet Room in favor of spending all of his time with Ryuji, so he never had the opportunity to question the twins about whether Joker had ever come to the Velvet Room, or if he would be able to create new Personas like Akira could; and the one time he’d had a perfect opportunity to ask Justine, he’d been so shaken by Joker’s conversation with him that the thought had completely slipped his mind.

Now, unfortunately, he had his answer.

(In his defense, however… when the choice for where to spend his time came down to a jail cell or Mementos where he was only ever referred to as “Trickster” or “Inmate,” or spending it with his friend who knew that he was having issues with his identity and would address him by name, consciously or not, in order to keep reminding him of who he was—well, the choice seemed pretty clear, even if it was selfish of him in retrospect.)

(Then again, this whole mess stemmed from his weakness and selfishness, didn’t it? Maybe it would just be better for him to—)

Akira pulled himself from his thoughts, shaking his head slightly and forcing himself to pay attention to Joker as he fought the Shadow alongside the rest of the Phantom Thieves, with Ryuji on his left, Ann on his right, and Haru on Ann’s right. Makoto, Yusuke, and Morgana all hung back, waiting to switch in at a moment’s notice if necessary, and Akira could tell that they were watching Joker just as sharply as he himself was, if not more.

The battle was over as quickly as it began, and the Shadow returned to human form before fading away, leaving the area empty save for the group of eight plus Akira.

“Good job, everyone,” Joker began with a small smile as he turned to head toward the exit, only for his expression to fade into confusion as Makoto and Ryuji moved to block his path. “Queen? Skull? Is something the matter?”

“Before we leave, we have some questions that we’d like answered,” Makoto said.

Joker’s brows furrowed. “Of course, but wouldn’t it be better to discuss whatever you want to ask at the nearest rest area?”

Makoto tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she eyed Joker firmly. “No, I believe it would be best not to delay this discussion any longer.”

Joker glanced around, surveying the expressions on each of the Phantom Thieves’ faces with a frown. “I see,” he said. “Well? What did you want to discuss?”

“We all know you’re not the real Akira,” Ryuji said, ignoring the annoyed look that Makoto shot him. “You ain’t gonna trick us anymore, so just give it up and get the hell outta his body.”

“Ah, is that what this is about?” Joker sighed and shook his head. “I had a feeling this would end up happening.”

“What do you mean?” Makoto asked.

“You all saw that apparition, didn’t you? It was stalking us around the top area of Mementos—I think it’s trying to disguise itself as me, though for what purpose, I’m not entirely sure.” Joker shook his head regretfully. “It must have been very convincing if it managed to convince all of you to turn against me like this.”

Ryuji moved to take a step forward, his expression livid as he recalled Joker’s conversation with him, essentially admitting to him that he really wasn’t Akira—and now what, he was going to try and pretend that none of that happened? “Don’t try and play innocent you—”

“Skull, enough.” Makoto stuck an arm out to hold him back before turning her attention back over to Joker. “If we really are wrong about this, then I’m sorry for doubting you, but we’ve discussed this as a group, and we feel that there are certain things that just don’t add up.”

Joker hummed thoughtfully. “Like what? I’m willing to answer any questions you have if it will help put your minds at ease.”

“Beginning approximately two weeks ago, there have been certain,” Makoto paused, searching for the right words before continuing, “ _ behaviors _ that have struck us as a bit out of the norm for you, though we could never quite pin them down until we gathered as a group to discuss it.”

“Yeah, some little things that just didn’t feel right,” Ann added, stepping forward to add to the conversation as soon as there was an opportunity to do so. “I thought I was just imagining it at first, but then everyone else mentioned getting the same feeling.”

Futaba tentatively stepped forward. “And in those same two weeks, we kept seeing your face popping up everywhere, like in mirrors and on our phones and stuff. There's no way it was a coincidence.”

“So let me get this straight: you started seeing something that looks like me and noticing things about my behavior that seemed ‘off,’” Joker said, “and because of that, you think that I'm a fake?”

The clear skepticism in both Joker's voice and expression gave the group pause, their conviction wavering the slightest bit as the ridiculousness of their claim began sinking in.

Ryuji scowled, the only one completely unaffected by Joker’s words. “I started noticing shit before I even realized I was seeing Akira everywhere, trying to get my attention. You're trying to turn us against him, and we ain't gonna fall for it.”

Joker was silent for a moment, eyeing Ryuji with an almost disappointed stare before cracking a small smile.

“Skull… no,  _ Ryuji _ ,” he said, taking a step toward Ryuji, who tensed in response. “How much do you really know about me?”

“What?” Ryuji blinked, taken aback by the sudden question. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, how much do you really know about Akira Kurusu?” Joker turned his gaze from Ryuji to the rest of the group. “How much do you all really know about me, that you can tell whether or not I’m really Akira?”

“We know plenty about Akira!” Ryuji responded forcefully. “I don’t know what the hell you’re trying to pull, but it ain’t gonna—”

“Do you know anything about my past?” Joker continued, forcefully cutting Ryuji off as he took another step forward. “About my family, or my hometown? My hobbies? My favorite foods and drinks? My  _ birthday? _ ” He laughed as he observed everyone’s troubled expressions. “Of course not—yet you’re insisting that you know me well enough to tell whether or not I’m really who I say I am. Don’t you think that’s a little unfair?”

“ _ Enough! _ ”

Akira stormed out of his hiding spot, just barely managing to hide the trembling of his body as he clenched his hands into fists at his sides.

“Ah, I was wondering when you would join us,” Joker said airily. “Are you going to try and turn them against me once more?”

“ _ I’m not turning them against you, because they were never your friends to begin with. And it doesn’t matter what they do or don’t know about me, because they trust me enough to know that I’m being honest with them. _ ”

Joker raised an eyebrow. “And what exactly do you have that would give them a reason to trust you—a ghost in the Metaverse with my face and my voice—over me, who has physically been with them this whole time?”

“He has his emotions.” Morgana moved to stand in front of Akira, his tail swishing behind him in irritation as he glared up at Joker. “His fear, his desperation, his relief and gratitude… you can't fake the feelings he showed us, even in the short time we were together.”  He pointed his sword up at Joker. ”But  _ you _ —every action, every smile, every word was all just a little too perfect, a little too rehearsed. You had no hesitations, no slip ups, no nervous ticks, nothing that would let someone realize that you weren't who you said you were.”

“And you're saying that, in a twist of irony, that was what gave me away?” Joker laughed softly as he shook his head. “I wasn't expecting this from you of all people, Morgana. I guess everyone has less trust in me than I thought.”

“You ain't the one we trust.” Ryuji joined Morgana at  Akira's side, edging the slightest bit in front of him as he gripped his pipe. As the rest of the Phantom Thieves began to follow suit, their weapons in hand as they faced Joker with determined expressions, Ryuji continued to speak. “We were all pretty shitty friends for letting this go on for so long, but this ends now. If you won't give Akira his body back, then we're just gonna have to  _ take _ it back.”

Akira had never been more grateful for his friends in his entire life, and he inwardly swore for the umpteenth time to do everything in his power to thank them for this once this whole ordeal was finally over—especially as Joker finally seemed to back down in defeat, taking a few steps backwards with his hands in his pockets.

“I guess I can't talk my way out of this anymore,” Joker said with a regretful sigh. “I never expected him to be so determined, or for him to be able to get in contact with you all to begin with, let alone to sway you all this much… I should have gotten rid of him the first time I saw him in Mementos, but I suppose I only have my own arrogance to blame.” He shrugged. “I might as well drop the act at this point—you all were determined to fight me as soon as we stepped into this room regardless, weren't you?”

The team tensed as a slow, unsettling grin worked its way onto Joker's face.

“Question is, can you all really defeat me?”

“We can, and we will.” Yusuke drew his sword, his eyes narrowed. “We will put an end to this here and now.”

Ryuji glanced at Akira with a reassuring smile. “Go hide, and leave this to us—we'll take this bastard down.”

Akira hesitated before reluctantly nodding. “ _ Be careful, everyone _ ,” he said, moving off to the side along with Futaba, who backed off so she could summon Prometheus.

“Why don't we make this a little more interesting?” Joker spread his arms out in front of him. “All six of you can fight me at once—though I can guarantee that you won't be able to land a single hit, regardless.”

“Damn cocky sunnova—I'll show you who can't land a hit!” Ryuji ripped off his mask. “ _ Seiten Taisei! _ ”

The Ziodyne rushed at Joker—but to Ryuji’s shock, instead of dodging, Joker smirked and moved directly into the path of the attack, his hand on his mask.

Morgana suddenly let out a sharp cry as a burst of electricity knocked him down.

Ryuji faltered, his eyes wide with stunned confusion. “What the hell...?”

“Mona-chan, are you okay?” Haru was the first to snap out of her surprise as she rushed over to Morgana's side, with Makoto quickly joining her to heal him.

Futaba's voice transmitted to the team through Prometheus. “ **_He switched to a Persona that reflects Electric attacks!_ ** ”

“No one said I had to just stand around and let myself get hit, right?” Joker stood with his hands in his pockets, looking completely at ease despite being the focus of several irritated glares as he gave a casual shrug. “Or did you really think it would be that easy?”

“ **_Guys, be careful. I don't recognize any of his Personas, and I've only scanned the two he's used so far—he still has four more._ ** ”

“All we can do is just keep trying to attack and see what works, right?” Ann ripped her mask off. “ _ Hecate! _ ”

The group could feel the heat from the Agidyne that rushed at Joker, hitting him straight on—but before they could so much as celebrate, the fire magic rushed back just as quickly, this time hitting Yusuke and sending him careening backwards onto the ground with a pained shout.

“Fox!!” Ann paled as she ran over to him, dropping to her knees to cast Diarama. “I’m so sorry, I don’t know how—”

“ **_He switched Personas again!_ ** ” The group could clearly hear the distress in Futaba’s voice as she scanned the new Persona, and the sound of her hitched breath made them all tense. “ **_I think… I think all of his Personas reflect different elements—he’s taking advantage of our weaknesses and using our attacks against us!_ ** ”

“Finally noticed?” Joker asked with a raise of an eyebrow. “I  _ did _ tell you that you wouldn’t be able to land a hit on me.”

“Then that means you knew what we were planning this whole time.” Makoto clenched her hands into fists. “You were fully prepared to fight us.”

“Loathe as I was to suspect you all of turning against me, the possibility did unfortunately cross my mind, so I figured it would be best to prepare just in case.” Joker eyed each of the distressed and frustrated Phantom Thieves in turn as he continued to speak. “Well? Attacking you all would honestly just be a waste of my time and energy, and you all can’t land a hit on me. Why not put this whole matter behind us and go home?”

“And what, let you keep Akira’s body? Fat chance.” Ryuji glared. “We’re not leaving ‘til we take you down.”

Makoto remained silent as Ryuji spoke, a pensive frown on her face, before she suddenly stepped forward and met Haru’s gaze with a small nod that Haru reciprocated with a smile.

“You seem to be forgetting one thing,” Makoto commented, smiling as she pulled off her mask in time with Haru. “ _ Anat! _ ”

“ _ Milady! _ ”

The Freidyne and Psiodyne attacks melded together as they shot toward Joker, and Morgana was the first to realize their plan.

“That’s right! His Personas can only reflect one element at a time, so if we attack together, then—!”

“ **_Look out!_ ** ”

Futaba’s warning came a second too late: the combined attacks rushed back at Makoto and Haru with double the force, knocking them both down and out in one hit, and leaving the team to stare at Joker’s smug smirk in horrified shock.

“That might have worked, if you all didn’t leave me in charge of the group’s inventory.” Joker waved the tube of magic ointment in his hand tauntingly. “Anything else you’d like to try before we move on? I’d rather not drag this out for any longer than necessary; I have other things to do tonight.”

As Morgana worked on reviving and healing Makoto and Haru, Futaba spoke up to keep Joker's focus away from them, her tone terse.

“ **_Your Personas… they aren’t normal. Even the ones I can’t properly scan feel way too strong. Our Joker never had Personas like that, so how did you get them?_ ** ”

“Through the Velvet Room, of course,” Joker said. “It was his own choice not to fuse stronger Personas, though I can’t say why—it might have cost a bit more, but the power seems worth the price to me.”

“Velvet Room? What are you talking about?” Yusuke voiced the group’s confusion, oblivious to Akira tensing up guiltily from his hiding spot. “He has never mentioned anything about a ‘Velvet Room’ before.”

Joker eyed Akira before laughing as he turned his attention back to the group. “So he hasn’t even told you that much, yet you all still insist on trusting him over me? I don’t know whether to feel impressed or insulted.”

“The hell’s that supposed to mean, huh?” Ryuji asked. “So what if he didn’t tell us about some room or whatever. What’s the big deal?”

“Oh, the  _ big deal _ is that he apparently hasn’t told you all about the incredible way all those new Personas are created.” Joker grinned. “I suppose that means I’ll have the honor, then.”

“ _ They don’t need to know, _ ” Akira protested, stepping out of hiding and focusing his gaze on Joker so he couldn’t see the expressions on any of his friends’ faces.

“Ah, but I think they do—after all, isn’t that Velvet Room supposed to be connected to you? I have to wonder what that says about the kind of person you really are.”

“ _ I didn’t choose the methods, it’s not my fault— _ ”

Joker grinned, clearly taking pleasure in Akira’s distress as he talked over him. “After all, executing your Personas so cruelly just to create newer, stronger ones… even I was unsettled watching it.”

“ _ Executing _ …?” Ann asked softly, and Akira couldn’t quite manage to hide his wince at the horror in her tone, knowing without even looking that the same horror was no doubt reflected in each of his friends’ expressions.

“With all the new Personas he creates, and all the weapons and accessories he makes for you all, I’m sure he hardly even bats an eye at sentencing his own Personas to the guillotine or the electric chair anymore,” Joker said with a shake of his head. “It’s horrible, really.”

“ _ That’s not— _ !”

“Would’ja knock it off already?”

Ryuji stepped forward with a scowl, catching Akira off guard as he and the rest of the team all turned to look at him.

“You’re saying all this shit to try and mess with our heads, but who  _ cares _ what Akira has or hasn’t told us? If it’s really that big of a deal then he can explain it himself after he gets his body back—but regardless, he’s our friend and our leader. We’re not gonna stop trusting him just ‘cause he didn’t tell us some shit that we really didn’t even need to know.”

“ _ Ryuji _ ….”

Ryuji turned to glance at Akira, and the reassuring look on his face sent a wave of relief rushing through him that was almost strong enough to bring him to tears, especially as Ryuji’s words spurred the rest of the group into stepping forward in agreement.

Joker kept trying to take his friends, his life,  _ everything _ from him—but they weren’t budging, no matter how much Akira feared they might, and Akira was more grateful than he could ever properly express for his friends’ stalwart support.

“I see,” Joker said, and Akira was caught off guard by the wistful expression that briefly crossed his doppelganger’s face, though it was gone as quickly as it came. “I suppose I really can’t change your minds, then.”

“You can’t and you won’t,” Morgana said. “So let’s end this already—just give up and leave Akira’s body peacefully, so we don’t have to fight anymore.”

Joker let out a quiet, humorless laugh. “I don’t think you realize that this is my body, my  _ life _ now.” There was the slightest hint of reluctance in his expression as he spoke, but it was quickly covered up by a cold smile. “If I have to lose some friends in order to keep it, then so be it.”

“You bastard!” Ryuji clenched his pipe tightly in his hand as he rushed forward, ignoring the shouts of all of his teammates for him to stop. “Then we’ll just have to keep forcing you out ‘til you’re gone for good!”

“Taking a more direct approach? That seems more like you,” Joker said tauntingly, avoiding the swing of Ryuji’s pipe. “Of course the school’s violent delinquent would live up to his reputation, flying into a rage and attacking his best friend so brutally.”

Ryuji stumbled slightly, his eyes widening in stunned shock. He knew those weren’t Akira’s words, yet they still came from Akira’s mouth, in Akira’s voice, and it was still painful to hear. The comment stung more than it would had anyone else thrown it at him like that—so much so that he found himself coming to a complete halt without even realizing.

“ **_Skull, watch out!_ ** ”

Futaba’s cry snapped Ryuji out of it, but not in time for him to dodge the One-Shot Kill that sent him flying backwards, and he crashed into the ground hard enough to make him see stars.

“Guess this means I’ll have to start fighting back,” Joker began, his expression and tone both cold. “Our friendship was nice while it lasted, and I did genuinely enjoy spending time with you all—but I have no intentions of giving up this identity now that I finally have one.  _ Kali! _ ”

“ **_Guys, be careful! That Persona is way stronger than the others!_ ** ”

Akira slipped back off to hide in the shadows of the room as the group just barely managed to dodge a Vorpal Blade that left a crater in the ground, leaving them all a bit pale as the huge gap in their strength became clearly apparent.

_ This isn’t good… they won’t be able to beat him. _ Akira clenched his hands in frustration as he watched Joker slowly but surely pushing the entire team back, sending out attacks and reflecting or dodging any attacks aimed at him in retaliation.  _ I can’t even do anything to help them… maybe it would be better to just— _

* * *

**_Do not lose faith, my Trickster …_ **

* * *

Akira jerked, startled by the sudden voice. He briefly caught a brief glimpse of a butterfly out of the corner of his vision before it disappeared.

Had he imagined it?

* * *

**_Recall your vows:_ **

**_“I am thou, thou art I…_ ** **”**

* * *

Akira’s eyes widened in realization, a plan forming in his mind as he carefully began to move along the edges of the room. There was no guarantee it would work, but if it meant helping his friends and putting an end to this once and for all, he was willing to take the risk.

From his observations of the battle, he couldn’t afford to waste another second.

Joker hit Makoto with a Psiodyne, sending her flying backwards into Ryuji before switching Personas just in time to reflect an attack from Yusuke and direct the rebound at Ann. Without missing a beat, he brought his daggers up to block a swing from Morgana’s sword, pushing him back with ease. He quickly jumped out of the way of Haru’s axe before switching Personas again and sending out another Vorpal Blade to push the entire group back once more, visibly amused by their determined attempts to fight back against him despite the clear gap in their strength.

“ _ Dominion! _ ”

Joker cast Mahamaon, watching as Haru, Ann, and Yusuke all fell to the insta-kill attack, and he took a moment to replenish his strength while Morgana and Makoto rushed over to their sides to revive and heal them, Ryuji hovering nearby with a frustrated expression.

“We ain’t getting nowhere like this!” Ryuji hissed, shooting Joker a glare. “We’ve gotta—”

Ryuji cut off, his eyes widening slightly as he caught sight of Akira sneaking up behind Joker—but before he could so much as open his mouth, Akira had already tackled Joker from behind, reaching around him to slam a hand on top of Joker’s mask.

“What?” Joker turned, caught more off guard by how solid the hand against his mask suddenly felt than by Akira trying to intervene in their fight. “What are you—”

“ _ I am thou, thou art I, _ ” Akira recited, blue flames beginning to dance under his fingertips as the mask responded to him. “ _ You may have created these Personas, but as long as I’m still Akira Kurusu, their contract is with me _ .”

Dominion, Kali, Parvati—Akira cycled through the Personas as quickly as possible, his mind whirling as he searched for one that his friends could use to their advantage—Seth, Dionysus, and—

_ Got it! _

“ _ Cu Chulainn! _ ”

As soon as Akira called forth the Persona, Futaba realized what he was going for, her scan picking up on the one exploitable weakness that he had.

Ryuji wasn’t sure who called out his name first, Akira or Futaba—regardless, he reacted without wasting a single second, knowing instinctively what they were asking him to do as he tore his mask off with enough force to send a pulse of static electricity rushing through the room.

“ _ Seiten Taisei!! _ ”

The Ziodyne came fast, and Akira just barely had enough time to pull back before it hit, still flying backwards from the shockwaves that momentarily left him just as dazed as Joker, who fell to the floor with sparks jumping off of his skin and his limbs twitching from paralysis.

“Now’s our chance!” Morgana exclaimed, taking the lead as everyone pulled themselves to their feet and rushed at Joker in an all-out attack.

Though exhausted, they put all of their strength into the final attack, each one praying that it would be enough—and finally, they watched as Joker fell forward, completely unconscious as a thin mist trailed up off of his body.

“Is that…?” Haru asked cautiously.

“ **_Something’s leaving Joker’s body_ ** **,** ” Futaba said. “ **_I think… I think we did it!_ ** ”

Futaba’s words lifted a weight off of everyone’s chests, and they finally allowed themselves to relax and let out sighs of relief.

“I didn’t think it would be that hard to fight Joker,” Ann said. “I never want to have to do that again.”

Yusuke nodded in agreement as he sheathed his sword. “Possessed or not, raising a weapon against our friend was an unpleasant experience.”

“Well, let’s hope that we never have to go through something like this again.” Makoto turned towards the exit as she added, “We should really get going. We’ve been in Mementos too long.”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here already; I'm beat.” Ryuji agreed. “Akira, are you alr—”

He turned to where Akira had been sitting, his heart immediately sinking. 

“Skull?” Morgana moved over to his side. “What is it?”

“Akira…” Ryuji stared at the spot where his best friend’s transparent form had been, the color draining from his face. “Akira’s gone.”


	6. Chapter 6

Akira groaned as he slowly returned to consciousness, his hand moving up to grip his head.

“Finally awake, Inmate?”

Akira jerked, his eyes shooting open at the sudden sound of metal striking metal. He sat up and took a moment to reorient himself, finding the familiar surroundings of his Velvet Room cell. Caroline and Justine looked at him through the bars, and Igor watched him from his desk in the center of the room with his usual unsettling grin.

“What happened?” Akira asked, massaging the side of his head as he struggled to remember how he arrived at the Velvet Room. “I was in Mementos, and everyone was fighting Joker….”

“Simply put, your plan succeeded,” Justine said with the slightest hint of a smile, “reckless as it may have been.”

Akira stared in shock. “It really worked?”

“Indeed it did, Trickster,” Igor said, chuckling quietly. “I must congratulate you: you have broken free of what should have been an inescapable fate, and have made yet another step toward your rehabilitation.”

Akira pushed himself to his feet and approached the cell door. “Thank you,” he responded, his expression genuinely grateful. He glanced down at the twins and added, “And thank you two, as well. I don’t think I would have been able to figure out how to get through this without you.”

“Don’t get used to it, Inmate,” Caroline said with a huff, glancing away to hide the embarrassed blush on her face and scowling as she added, “And don’t start slacking, either. You still have a long way to go before your rehabilitation is finished.”

“I know, I know,” Akira said with an amused smile. “I’ll do my best, I promise.”

Justine nodded in approval. “And we will do our best to continue guiding you.”

Akira took a step back from the cell door, lifting his head slightly as he became aware of the faint sound of voices calling his name.

“I guess I’ll be waking up in my body now?”

“That is correct,” Igor said, his unsettling grin widening. “Remember, Trickster: this was but one of many trials left for you to face. I wish you luck.”

Before Akira could ask what other trials he could possibly have ahead of him—though he knew Igor would never give him a straight answer, anyway—he felt himself beginning to fade out of the Velvet Room and, at long last, back into his body.

* * *

“Ryuji, pacing a hole in the floor isn’t going to make Akira wake up any faster.”

Ryuji shot Ann an annoyed glance but continued moving, anxious nerves making it impossible for him to so much as stand still, let alone sit down like everyone else.

Haru’s affluence had been a saving grace in getting Akira’s unconscious body from the train station to LeBlanc without drawing any attention: her chauffeur had shown up within minutes of her calling and hadn’t asked any questions as Haru, Ryuji, and Morgana had gotten into the car with Akira in Ryuji’s arms, the rest of the group rushing off to catch the next train to meet up with them at LeBlanc.

Sojiro had been understandably concerned as Ryuji carried Akira’s unconscious body upstairs, but they managed to convince him not to call a doctor on the condition that they let him know as soon as Akira woke up—a simple demand, one that they were all more than happy to agree to, especially if it meant that Sojiro would give them privacy as they waited for Akira to wake up.

Yet here they were, hours later: waiting, and waiting, and  _ waiting _ , to the point where everyone—despite their occasional admonishments toward Ryuji for his nervous pacing—was starting to get a little antsy.

Sure, something had left Akira’s body—but what if Akira was stuck in limbo now? What if they were supposed to have done something else to help Akira get back into his body? What if he was in a coma now because of them? What if Akira disappeared from the Metaverse because they somehow accidentally erased him? What if—

“I think he’s waking up!”

Morgana’s exclamation brought Ryuji’s spiraling thoughts to a screeching halt as he whirled around to face the bed, his heart lifting as he saw Akira beginning to stir.

The first thing that Akira became aware of was how  _ heavy _ he felt—like his entire being was weighed down, compared to the weightlessness of floating through the Void and moving around in Mementos that he’d unfortunately grown accustomed to over the past two weeks. He slowly opened his eyes, a lump quickly working its way into his throat from sheer relief as he found himself sitting in his bed, in his bedroom, surrounded by his friends who were all watching him with mixed expressions of worry and hope.

He slowly sat up, clenching and unclenching his hands as he took in the disorienting yet relieving feeling of being back in his own body, before finally turning his attention over to his friends with a small, teary-eyed smile.

“I’m back,” he just barely managed to force out, his voice hoarse from restrained emotion, before he was quickly tackled in a hug by a crying Futaba, with Ryuji and Ann quickly following and Morgana squeezing his way onto his lap in the middle of them. He let out a quiet, choked up laugh as he hugged them all back, hiding the few tears that escaped against his will as he ducked his head and rested against his friends.

“Alright, I think that’s enough,” Makoto interrupted softly after a few minutes of the three of them clinging to Akira, a small, amused smile on her face. “You’re going to suffocate him if you keep that up.”

With reluctance, Ryuji, Ann, and Futaba all pulled back from Akira, who flushed and quickly dried his face before looking up at the rest of his friends. He took in the warm smiles on Makoto, Haru, and Yusuke’s faces as they stood off to the side of the bed watching as everyone else tried and failed to compose themselves.

“How are you feeling?” Haru asked.

Akira rubbed the back of his neck. “A bit weird, honestly. I guess I’ve been out of my body for so long that it’s going to take a bit of getting used to now that I’m back.” He hesitated for a moment before bowing his head slightly and adding, “I’m so sorry, everyone. You all had to put yourselves in danger because of my weakness. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t let myself get swayed and tricked so easily.”

“Dude, c’mon.” Ryuji put his hand on Akira’s shoulder, and both of them couldn’t help but relax slightly in relief at the solid, tangible connection. “We’ve been through this a million times already—it wasn’t your fault. You should’ve been more honest with us that you were feeling stressed ‘n’ overwhelmed, yeah, but….” He glanced back at the rest of the group, Akira following his gaze to see all of their guilty expressions. “But we should’ve noticed, and we shouldn’t have dumped everything on you to begin with.”

“Ryuji’s right,” Ann added sheepishly before Akira could speak up. “You always seemed like you were so composed and in control, like you had your life together better than all of us. You never seemed to mind being the one in charge and making all the big decisions and stuff, so I guess we all became a bit dependent on that.”

“We put so much faith in you that we forgot you were just another teenager like ourselves.” Yusuke’s normally calm expression was troubled as he spoke, his tone laced with guilt. “Being a leader is a large burden—but as your teammates and your friends, we should have done our part to lessen that burden for you, not add to it.”

“Please, if there’s anything at all that we can do to help you, never hesitate to ask.” Haru gave Akira a soft smile. “You’ve done so much for all of us. It’s time that we returned the favor.”

“And we expect you to be honest with us from here on out,” Makoto scolded, though the harshness of her words was softened by the small smile on her face. “We can’t help you if we don’t know something is wrong.”

Akira winced. “I understand, and I promise I’ll be more honest with you all if I’m feeling overwhelmed.” He hesitated for a moment before forcing himself to broach the topic that he was most reluctant to discuss. “About before, what Joker said—”

“You don’t have to tell us,” Makoto interrupted, much to Akira’s surprise. “We all discussed it while you were unconscious, and we decided that we don’t need to know unless you think it’s something important for us to know.”

Morgana nodded. “This ‘Velvet Room’ seems like something meant to help you as our leader, regardless of how that impostor was trying to make it sound. As long as going there and creating those new Personas isn’t hurting you in any way, that’s all that matters to us.”

“I wasn’t intentionally trying to hide it,” Akira said, his expression still the slightest bit guilty even as he relaxed. “It was just a weird thing to bring up, and I never really found the right time or the right way to explain it. Eventually I just figured it wasn’t worth mentioning, if I’m the only one who ever went there and if no one else could see the doors.”

“Well, it  _ would’ve _ been kinda weird mentioning something like that out of the blue,” Futaba agreed, playfully nudging Akira with her shoulder as she sat on the bed with him. “But with all the crazy stuff we’ve seen in the Metaverse, I think we still would’ve believed you anyway.”

Akira cracked a small smile. “I guess you have a point. Sorry.”

“I swear, if you apologize one more time I’m gonna grab a pillow and smack you with it,” Ryuji threatened, the corners of his lips twitching in a repressed smile. “It’s  _ fine _ , dude. Seriously, all that matters right now is that you’re back.”

“Okay,” Akira said with a soft laugh, “no more apologies, I promise.”

“There’s still one thing that I don’t understand, though,” Ann said, prompting everyone to turn their attention over to her. “What exactly  _ was _ that thing that stole your body, anyway? You said it came from the Void or whatever, but …”

“Honestly,” Akira dropped his gaze with a troubled frown, “I think he was someone like me.”

“Someone like you?” Haru asked. “What do you mean?”

Akira briefly glanced up at Haru, taking in her curious expression and the curious expressions of the rest of his friends before looking back down at his clasped hands resting on his lap as he spoke.

“I told you that if I stayed trapped in that Void for too long, I would lose my identity, right?” Upon receiving scattered murmurs of acknowledgement, he continued. “That means I would have become like him—only able to survive and escape by stealing someone else’s identity.”

“So you’re saying that the doppelganger was originally another person who had their own identity stolen?” Yusuke asked.

Akira nodded. “I think so, yeah. When you think about it, he really didn’t have any malicious intent beyond wanting a body and an identity of his own. He chose Personas that would send your own attacks back, most likely so he wouldn’t have to hurt you himself, and he seemed genuinely upset that you all chose to believe me over him.” He hesitated for a moment before adding, “I know in the end it was either him or me, but part of me wonders if there wasn’t some other way that we could have helped him and still gotten my body back.”

“Akira…” Morgana looked up at him in sympathy, craning his neck to press against him. “I know how you feel, but there was nothing we could do. If it wasn’t you, then he would have stolen another innocent person’s identity, and the cycle would have just continued. At least now no more people will be hurt.”

Akira sighed, reaching out to pet Morgana.

“I guess you’re right,” he said, and he was about to say more when a yawn slipped out instead, only then realizing how exhausted he was now that the relief of being back in his body had sunk in.

“We should let Akira get some rest,” Makoto said. “It’s getting late anyway.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty beat myself.” Ann stretched a bit before giving Akira a smile. “We’ll see you at school tomorrow, right?”

“Definitely.” Akira smiled wryly as he added, “I’ve been going stir-crazy these past two weeks. Going back to school will be a welcome change.”

“Just make sure not to push yourself too hard, okay?” Haru reminded him. “If you need any help with anything—”

“I’ll be sure to ask, I promise,” Akira said. His expression softened as he looked at each of his friends in turn and said once more, “Thank you. All of you.”

“That’s what friends are for, is it not?” Yusuke responded with a small smile. “We will do whatever we can to support you, as you’ve done for us.”

“Yeah, without a doubt!” Ryuji agreed. “You just say the word, man, and we’ll all be there.”

“I know you will, and I’ll do my best to be more conscious of asking for help when I need it. I promise.”

As everyone began heading toward the stairs, Futaba hung back nervously, glancing at Akira with a guilty expression before quietly speaking up.

“Um… I’m— I’m really sorry.” Before Akira could so much as open his mouth, she quickly barrelled on. “I know I kinda— really,  _ really _ depended on you a lot these past few months and… and I dunno if that put a lot of extra pressure on you, being my key item, but—”

“Futaba.” Akira got up out of bed to approach her, his expression softening in understanding. “I promise, my stress had nothing to do with being your key item—honestly, it made me happy that you relied on me that much.”

“So… so you’re not mad at me or anything, right?” Futaba questioned tentatively, glancing up at Akira.

Akira reached out and gave Futaba a pat on the head. “Of course not, I never was.” He gave her a smile as he added, “Being your key item was just as important to me as it was to you, I promise; and I’ll always be there to help you, even if you’ve finished your promise list and don’t need a key item anymore.”

Futaba put a hand over her chest as she let out a relieved sigh. “Good, I’m glad I didn’t mess anything up.”

Hesitating a moment, she quickly reached out and gave Akira a hug, murmuring a thank you before rushing for the stairs with an embarrassed expression.

Akira laughed softly as he followed at a more normal pace, seeing his friends out of LeBlanc so he could lock up behind them, and it was only at the last second that he reached out to grab Ryuji’s arm and stop him from leaving.

“Do you— would you mind staying a bit longer? I wanted to talk to you.”

Ryuji blinked, caught off guard, but hanging back regardless. “Sure, no problem.”

Futaba looked between the two of them, snickering to herself as she scooped up Morgana off the floor. “Looks like you’re coming with me for tonight, kitty.”

“Wh—hey!” Morgana twisted in her arms. “Why—”

“I’ll let Sojiro know that you’re all better now, Akira! Goodnight!”

Futaba left with a bewildered Morgana in her arms, leaving Akira and Ryuji alone in LeBlanc—much to Akira’s embarrassment and Ryuji’s confusion.

_ She’s too sharp for her own good. _

(Yet he couldn’t help but silently thank her for taking Morgana and giving him and Ryuji some privacy.)

“Let’s go back upstairs,” Akira suggested after locking the door.

After making their way upstairs and taking a seat on the bed, Ryuji immediately turned his attention over to Akira, furrowing his brows in a mixture of confusion and concern.

“So, what’s up?” Ryuji asked. “Everything alright?”

Akira nodded. “I just… I know I must sound like a broken record at this point, but I don't know how else to express how much everything you did meant to me aside from saying thank you—honestly, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”

Ryuji shrugged modestly with a light flush coloring his cheeks. “That’s a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think? I mean, everyone else helped too, it wasn’t just me—”

“Ryuji,” Akira gently cut him off, shifting on the bed so he could turn and face him properly, “I’m serious: the only reason I didn’t lose my identity and my memories and  _ everything _ was all because of you. You kept talking to me, kept addressing me, calling me by name, talking about the people close to us by name—all I had left to cling to was your voice and the things you said to me; everything else was slipping away faster than I could hold onto it the longer I was trapped for. I don’t know whether you realized it or not, but every time you so much as mentioned my name, it helped me remember who I was for just a little longer, just long enough for everyone to get me back into my body.”

“I… damn, Akira, I didn’t— I mean, I knew it was bad, but… I had no idea it was  _ that _ bad.” Ryuji let out a shaky breath before giving Akira a smile. “I’m really glad, then—that I was able to help, I mean. Wish I could say I did all that stuff you said on purpose, but I guess it must’ve been like,” he laughed sheepishly, “a gut instinct or something? I dunno.”

“Regardless, I appreciate it more than I could ever say—and I swear, I’ll do whatever I can to make it up to you.”

“C’mon dude, don’t be like that.” Ryuji playfully nudged his shoulder against him. “Friends help friends out, right? And you’ve helped my ass outta tough spots more times than I can count, so as far as I’m concerned, if anyone owes anyone here then I still owe you.”

Akira chuckled. “Fine, I guess in that case we can consider it even.”

The two of them fell into a comfortable silence—or comfortable on one end, at least. While Ryuji was fine with sitting next to Akira and simply enjoying having his best friend back where he belonged, Akira wrung his hands nervously as he stared up at the ceiling, hemming and hawing in his mind about whether or not he should bring up the other subject he’d resolved to speak with Ryuji about before finally pushing himself to take the plunge.

“There’s one more thing I wanted to say.”

“Hm?” Ryuji glanced back over at him curiously. “What is it?”

Akira dropped his gaze down to his hands on his lap as he tried to figure out the best approach, before deciding to just get straight to the point so there would be no misunderstandings.

“I like you.”

Ryuji froze, physically feeling the weight of those three words, and he was too stunned to give an immediate response—which at least gave Akira time to finish getting his thoughts out, if nothing else.

“Before this whole mess, I was fine with keeping my feelings to myself and staying your best friend—but when I thought about fading away and losing my memories without ever getting to tell you how I feel, and when I thought about you smiling and laughing with someone pretending to be me… it made me sick. I’ve liked you for so long now, and I took it for granted that we’d have all the time in the world for me to tell you how I feel—so I swore that when and if I got my body back, I would be more honest with everyone, including—and especially—with you.” Upon receiving no response, he smiled humorlessly and added, “If it makes you uncomfortable, though, you can just pretend that I never said anything—”

“Dude, no, that’s not it,” Ryuji laughed, catching Akira’s attention and finally prompting him to look up. “I’m just in shock, really. I never… I mean, you’re like— you could have  _ anyone _ , and—hell, I thought you had to have had a girlfriend by now or something, with how many people you’re always hanging out with. But are you for real? You like  _ me? _ ”

Akira’s expression softened as he reached out and took Ryuji’s hands in his own, smiling as Ryuji blushed in response. “I am completely, one hundred percent for real,” he responded, laughing quietly as Ryuji shot him an annoyed look. “Seriously. Ever since we first stumbled into Kamoshida’s palace—no, I think even before that, when I first met you on that rainy day.” Akira locked gazes with Ryuji despite their mutual embarrassment as he continued to speak. “I was miserable coming to Tokyo, and even before, back home—and then you showed up, and it was like… like a ray of pure sunshine breaking through the clouds, like a breath of fresh air in the stifling haze that I was trapped in: you were so open, so honest, so passionate. I barely even knew you and I would have followed you anywhere just to bask in your presence for just a few more seconds—and then when we got caught, and you told me to run when you were the one in danger of dying… how could I not fall for someone as incredible as you?”

Ryuji opened and closed his mouth a few times, his brain scrambling to try and come up with something coherent to say in response as his face burned hot enough to burn Ann’s strongest Agidyne to shame. Finally, he managed to force out, “You’re… you’re serious. This whole time I thought—”

Akira blinked as Ryuji cut himself off, the slightest flicker of hope igniting inside his chest as he felt Ryuji give his hands a squeeze. “Ryuji?”

Ryuji laughed. “Dude, this whole time I thought I had no chance with someone like you—probably would’ve kept thinking that too if you never told me how you felt, which is still… well, I still think you could do way better than me, but after all this crazy shit that happened, I’m not gonna take anything for granted anymore.”

“Does that mean …?”

“I like you too,” Ryuji said, ”and I guess we’re both dumbasses for not realizing how we both felt sooner, or we could’ve been dating for months now.”

Akira couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Yeah, I guess so—but better late than never?”

“Yeah,” Ryuji said with a grin, shifting the slightest bit closer. “Better late than never.”

Akira shifted closer in return, hesitating for a moment before leaning forward and pressing his lips to Ryuji’s in a chaste kiss.

“Do you want to stay the night?” Akira offered, ignoring the burning in his cheeks. Quietly, he added, “I kind of got used to spending the night with you, honestly.”

Ryuji draped his arms over Akira’s shoulders as he leaned forward and pressed another, longer kiss to Akira’s lips, enjoying the feeling of having his best friend physically in front of him after having to watch him trapped behind the reflection of his phone for weeks.

“Sure,” he said after pulling back, his expression amused as he took in the sight of Akira’s slightly dazed look in the wake of their kiss. “I kinda don’t wanna go home yet anyway. I’m sure my ma won’t mind if I stay one night here with you.”

“And since Morgana isn’t here,” Akira added with the slightest hint of mischief in his tone, “there won’t be anyone making us go to bed early.”

Ryuji moved his arms off of Akira and stood up from the bed with his grin still on his face. “Video games until we pass out and regret it in the morning?”

Akira matched Ryuji’s grin with one of his own as he stood up as well, relishing the simple feeling of moving around in his own bedroom, in his own body. “You read my mind.”

He knew that there were still plenty of trials and dangers ahead of them, and normally he would have been stressing out about catching up on the two weeks of his life that he’d lost and figuring out what Joker had and hadn’t done while in his body. But right now, sitting pressed up next to Ryuji on the couch as they smiled and laughed and played old school video games together, Akira couldn’t bring himself to care.

No matter what happened in the future, Akira was confident that everything would be okay in the end, now that he knew he had his friends to support him and help him carry the burdens that he’d been struggling to shoulder on his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to give a huge thank you to the BB mods Music, Milk, and Canti for all their incredible work with organizing and running this amazing event! <333 Congrats to everyone who saw the event through to the end, and thank you again to my two artists, as well as a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to read through my fic! ;u;


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